7/28/2013 cont.- Back in the States... Mommy,Daddy and Kristin happy to have me home!!!

On my way home, boarding in 1.5 hours... East coast here i come! Mom, Dad and Kristin are glad to have me back home. So, I am back home in MD now... work tomorrow... Lots of memories and thoughts to think about... It's 7/29 in Korea right now as they are about 13 hours ahead of us.

All the dates below are posted as they stood in Korea.

Trip of a lifetime has come to a close... I now have 19 new friends from all over the world... Korea, Denmark, Belgium, Norway, France and of course people from the West and Mid-west in the USA...  Jet-lag sucks and I go back to working in full swing tomorrow.

I have memorabilia to remember the trip, a taekwondo uniform, a new hanbok and  some other nice trinkets...
I have decided I am going to start a memory box and hang up some of the art work done by framing them.
I also will create a scrapbook with all the paperwork...

Much thanks and gratitude to HOLT and the staff of Holt for this wonderful opportunity.

Returning home was also hilarious... Going through customs was very quick: the guard thought I was 14... It's half my age but hey... That's okay... At least he had a sense of humor...

Ironies of ironies: the two people I sat next to on the plane ride out of Dulles to Incheon were the same two people I sat next to on the plane ride back home from Incheon to Dulles. They spent two weeks in China with a tour group and had a layover in Incheon. It was a mother and daughter that was vegetarian: I can't recall the mother's name but the daughter's name was Daisy; she was nine.

7/27/2013 Saying goodbye is always bittersweet...

Hello Saturday... Returned to hotel at 6am thankful that today was a low key day..As I was returning the Norweign and Chicago sisters were leaving for the airport. I left the Grand Hilton alittle after noon with a few others that were catching  the 6005 bus to the airport to take their flights home. I said goodbye to them and then went downstairs to catch the free shuttle bus to the best western premier.

I'm so tired now... Trying to get some rest tonight but not too much since I have a 13.5 hour flight ahead of me. 

I miss my friends already... Some will stay here in Seoul for something called " the gathering" the rest of us are headed home within a few days... Special thanks to the holt staff and the wonderful program they put on for us. It was insightful and enriching as well as life changing.

I am greatful for new friends... New beginnings and as some from the trip would say... YoLo -you only live once...

What happens in Seoul stays in Seoul! I have come to have a new appreciation for myself, my homeland and the culture, joys and sorrows that all of that entails.

For some they have long vacations and will stay in Korea until summer is nearly over; others will stay for just a few more weeks and others will travel the world... I.E. my new friend Martin will go to Thailand.  I hope he has the time of his life.

**Reflection of my trip:**

After vacations like these I am both saddened and happy; some would say its bittersweet. Although I came here for a purpose that did not transpose I will never lose faith in what God's plan is for me. I trust that my birth parents gave me the best life they knew how and that was to give me up for adoption 26 years ago. 

I can truly say I am at peace and can move on with my life more willingly as with an open heart.

Thank you again to all my new friends: the Danes, the Americans, the French, the Belgiums and the Norwegians... West coast to east coast and of course the new Koreans too!

Hope we all stay in touch and will somehow plan a reunion soon! 

7-26 Friday Closing time- end of program...

We have free time in the morning so I packed my belongings. we then ate lunch and then we had the closing ceremony.  For the closing ceremony my talent was the traditional Korean bow with my new Belgium friend Eun Jee. The closing banquet and ceremony was today... The banquet was held in Gangnam at a fancy hotel called Riverside. It was buffet style and delicious. The desserts especially were to die for...gelato, tiramisu and cheesecake. Partied hard core last night with the Danes... Going out tonight... Last night with my new 16 friends and holt staff.

Tomorrow I'll be moving to the best western in Incheon and staying there all night.

Can't believe this trip is coming to a close...

7-25 Thursday Gyeong- Buddist temple

I can't believe the trip is coming towards the end. Today in Gyeong-gu we saw a Buddhist temple known as the Bulguksa temple. Here we saw monks and lots and lots of stairs. On the way out we saw piles of stones.
Often in these Buddhist temples you see a symbol that looks like a German Nazi symbol but it isn't in Korea it is known as a manja and is in the opposite direction of the swastika. It is a symbol used by Buddists. It's literal translation is " the letter man" .
The tour guide described it by saying The first use of the Manja dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization that existed over 5,000 years ago. In Sanskirt, the Manja is called Srivatsalksana. And while there are four ways to express this Sanskrit word, the most common is “Srivatsa”, which literally means the shape of sea clouds where hair is curled, overlapped and intermingled. I know, it sounds a bit strange, but in context, it makes a lot more sense. Srivatsa, or Gilsanghwiseon (길상희선) or Gilsanghaewun (길상해운) in Korean, refers to one of the “Samsipisang” (삼십이상), which is just one of the thirty-two marks of excellence that existed on Seokgamoni-bul’s (The Historical Buddha) body. From his head to his toes, the Buddha was covered in these marks. It is a symbol meaning good fortune.
 Then we ate lunch which was buffet style and then we drove back to Seoul. We ate buffet style dinner too!

Now we are back in Seoul... To celebrate being back in Seoul some of us went out to norae bong and a bar called the Ho Bar. This day some of us also met some of Yujin's friends at a beer pong place... Stayed out late...

7-23 and 7-24 Gyeong and Busan

Today 7-23 we left Seoul and the Grand Hilton and drove by tour bus to gyeong-gu city. It's about 4 hours outside of Seoul. We are staying at the Hyundai hotel , generally 2 people to a room. i got to room with a Danish girl Anne Mee. She was really sweet. We viewed lots of historical places. On the tour bus we watched a Korean drama called 'Jewel in the Palace'. It was pretty interesting...

On 7-24 we went to Busan city, only about an hour outside of Seoul. Busan is the second largest port in Korea. We saw  the Busan tower and were able to see a 360 degree view of Busan from it. We ate a buffet style lunch. After lunch we went to haeundae beach and a fishery market. Went shopping at a local market and then we came back to Gyeong-gu. For dinner we ate Bulgogi again :). Busan was a beautiful city. I wish I had taken more photos... I have enough to show you all back home though.

7-22 Root Search day- confusion angst and peace

Today we will visit Holt to view our files... The root search is today as well but unfortunately, my parents did not answer the telegram sent to them. The file here in Korea is exactly like the one I have at home. I was relieved of this since sometimes the file is not the same.

It appears my birth mother received the telegram from the mailman personally herself. Both mom and dad are still living together and probably married now. They no longer live in Daegu. They now live in another district called the Choong Nam province. The city they live in is called Chun-Ahn;it's about one hour away from Seoul.The OB/GYN Partima where I was born in is no longer around.

I took a nap today for 4 hours I am exhausted. Then I went out with some girls to Insadong area for shopping; we spent 3 hours looking around in different shops. It was awesome!!

7-20 and 7-21 Homestay/ church

Our next task of the week was the much anticipated home-stay. I was one of the first to arrive downstairs in the hotel lobby. The social worker Ms.Seol introduced me to my home-stay family and Esther was nearby too.The home-stay family's last name was Choi. I said goodbye to the Holt staff and set off with them(The Choi's). They had only arrived with their domestically adopted daughter Seung Ah. On Saturday evening at 2:00PM my home-stay experience began. I was paired with a nice family who has 3 children; a 2 year old daughter, 14 year old son and 18 year old son. The youngest Seung Ah was adopted domestically through Holt. The family lives about an hour outside of Seoul. the father Taewon speaks English fairly well. He told me to call him Sam chon which means uncle in Korean. Taewon's brother lived closer to Seoul so before going to their home we visited his brother. His brother's name is Jason and therefore, I was to refer to him as Jason. 

To begin the fun we walked around some older streets of Seoul; one place we walked near was the president's house. Here in Korea it's called the blue house. It is like the equivalent of the White House in Washington D.C. to the US president. 

After walking around a bit and drinking our coffees we said goodbye to Jason and his wife.The coffee I had was a green tea latte with almonds in it. We used their bathroom first though since we had an hour drive ahead of us.

Then we drove about an hour away to the home-stay family house.When we arrived at Sam chon's home his other two children were home from school. I was introduced to them.

The two year old Seung Ah was naturally interested in the gift bag I had in my hand do, they opened the gift to satisfy her curiosity. They seemed very appreciative.

 We then went and ate pork for dinner at a local restaurant. Their original plan was to eat sushi but I was disinterested in eating raw fish so they changed dinner plans for me. After eating dinner we returned back to their home. The children decided to stay there.

Sam chon seemed very enthusiastic about taking me to a jjimjalbang( a spa/sauna). I was rather shocked at the nudity of this place even though we were seperated by gender and Sam chon had warned me about this on the car ride there. First you are in a public area where everyone is naked. You take a shower and then get into sauna's of varying   temperatures. Then my home-stay mother paid for me to get a complete scrub down. I cringed at the sight of all the dead skin cells that flaked off my body. After the scrub down you shower again and put on the uniform they supply for you to wear in the sauna room. During the sauna time you eat food and drink drinks like tea or energy drinks. Your head is wrapped with a towel like a sheep's head called "yang meori". The rooms smelt of burning wood and are varying temperatures. Most people sleep when they are in a jjimjalbang. you start in a hit room and then move to a cold room because everything must be bakanced. after this you shower once more and then return into your own personal clothes. After the sauna we came back to home-stay house and I went to bed. I was very relaxed and tired.

7/21 ~The next morning for breakfast we ate bread... Sweet honey bread, red bean bread and bacon, toast and eggs. My host family is not religious so rather than attending church we went shopping in Bundang. This district is where Taewon works as an insurance salesman. I was able to pick up more souvenirs here and then I ate noodles for lunch. They were traditional japanese noodles called udon and I ate rice balls. The home-stay family also graciously bestowed a few gifts to me prior to my leaving their home. They gave me hand-made chocolates( very expensive) and instructed me not to share them with anyone. They also gave me a compilation of Korean music that their 14 year old son downloaded and put onto a USB for my listening pleasure. The last gift was a book called "Dandelion this is how we love you"; written by Neil Park and illustrated by Yoojin Jang. This was an adoptee family story written by adoptees. Taewon says they attend a meeting at Holt once a month with Seung a to go over adoption issues and tribulations.

Then, the home-stay will be over. At 4pm I'll be joining staff member and our house mother YuJin/ Vicki to her church service. The church was an English service and is called Onnuri church. The sermon was on 2 Kings 22. Eating pizza for dinner and then going out ...The club was very crowded for a Sunday night and busy, it appears nightlife here thrives... The club was called NB2 it stands for Noise Basement 2 and had the music blasting, strobe lights going and smoke everywhere. We danced on the noise bar.