Sunday, June 27th

Sunday, our last full day in S Korea... Kelly decided to attend Mass in the Korean Catholic Church down the street. While he was unable to understand the spoken language, he had a basic idea of what was occurring during the service.  Kelly said that they give out plastic wallet size folders with the bulletin when the parishioners enter the church. About one third of the way through the service, the acolytes bring out these wooden boxes to the front of the church. Then row by row the parishioners get up and go up front to put their plastic wallet size folder into the boxes. Kelly figured out that the folders are for the parishioners offering for that week. The parishioners bow to each other during the Peace with hands folded in a prayer-like formation.

Upon leaving the church, youth gave to all a rice cake with raisins. Aaron's head teacher, Ridia said it was because it was the Priest's Birthday and that was a gift to parishioners at the 9:00am service. She said at the 11:00 am service, everyone got noodles.

Kelly got my delicious black coffee from McDs, and we did some sorting, cleaning up, and then went to Lotte Mart to get some pictures made and buy  frames.  When we got back, Aaron was up and moving from just getting to bed at 6:30 am that morning after the USA lost to Ghana in overtime during their 2010 World Cup championship soccer match.

So the three of us headed out to eat at a Chinese Restaurant where we got some sweet and sour chicken, and black bean  noodle with assorted veggies, shrimp, and squid.. Kelly was brave enough to eat the squid pieces while I stayed  clear of that delicacy!

We did our last trip to Lotte Mart where we got Aaron some groceries for the week and we enjoyed an ice cream cone from Baskin Robbins before coming back to the apartment to rest.

We dressed and headed out at 7:00 pm for a wonderful dinner engagement with Principal Kim, two head teachers at HamBak Elementary School, Ridia, Aaron's head teacher in his English Center, Geoff (other English teacher in Aaron's Center), Aaron, Kelly and me.  What a wonderful Korean Restaurant that Principal  Kim drove us to!  We enjoyed a number of wonderful food items, good conversation, and the opportunity to get to know Aaron's principal and staff at HamBak Elementary School.  Principal Kim is a warm, generous, kind man,  and we so appreciate his generosity and his invitation to dinner this evening! They all spoke so positively of Aaron and appreciate his teaching and his contributions to their school.

The 1 1/2 hour dinner was a wonderful way to end our adventure in Korea.  During our 10 days here, we met some wonderful people, ate interesting and delicious varieties of food, saw some awesome monuments and sights,  rode in buses, taxis, subway trains, and walked (and STEPPED) our way through a variety of settings.  Thanks Aaron for sharing your Korea with us!  Check out our day's pics!

http://picasaweb.google.com/embruckart/62720102#