Visitors

Mark and I were so happy to greet our very first visitors in Korea! Mark's parents and brother Jeff arrived in Korea at the end of April. We were so happy to have them here and to show them a bit of our world. Their hotel was pretty close to both our apartment as well as to Connexus so for the few days that we had to work while they were here it was nice that we could still stop in either before work or after work.

Their first full day here (Saturday, April 26) we spent a lot of the day walking and walking. We saw a few major touristy spots and were so tired of walking so we took a city bus tour. Not the most exciting tour I've ever taken but at least we got to sit for a bit. Also that first day we managed to get ourselves a little lost on the subway. After taking the subway for 8 months we get the most confused while having visitors...opps...

The next day we introduced them to our small church community and then went to tour Gyeongbokgong which is the most famous palace in Seoul. Mark and I had been here before (see post Sept.10) but it was nice to be back since I had forgotten most of what I had learned about it and it was such a beautiful day.
After that weekend Mark and I had to go back to work so during the day the Wiehlers had the chance to explore a bit on their own as well as see Connexus and KAC.

On Friday (we had the day off of work!) the five of us took the 4 and a half hour bus ride to Gyeongju which is in the south eastern corner of Korea. Gyeongju is a really traditional city in Korea which used to be the capital of the Silla Dynasty. It has a lot of the traditional Korean buildings and has a very different feeling than Seoul. Our hotel was not right in Gyeongju but in the mountains near a famous Buddhist temple, Bulguksa. We had a beautiful view from our hotel window and we really enjoyed the area.

Here we are at Bulguksa. These little boys were getting their pictures taken and I guess Mark and Jeff were in the background. When they tried to get out of the way of the picture their mom waved for them to get in the picture so here they are.

Here we are in front of the temple. I like my new umbrella. :) After the temple we were looking for a place to eat and it was really strange because it kind of felt like we had entered a ghost town. We were walking through these streets of restaurants and youth hostels and there were no people! I think this was a first for us in Korea. I tried to ask the woman in the restaurant where all the people were and she answered "tomorrow" so I guess all of the people come on the weekends. Who knows.

The next day we took the bus to the ocean to hang out on the beach and to see the famous sea tomb of King Munmu. I was not the nicest beach...it had a lot of rocks and garbage but despite that it was nice to sit by the water for a while and watch the water.

After coming back from the ocean we went on a hike to see a famous Buddha statue on the top of the hill by the temple. It was a bit more tiring when we thought but the walk was really beautiful. Here we are on our way down.
Every night (and maybe some mornings) some of us played Settlers together.
Our last day in Gyeongju we explored some of the city of Gyeongju which began at this park which had a lot of ancient tombs. The tombs were big hills which you can see in the background of this picture. Usually tombs are not this big but since the people were of royalty they got big hills. (This picture is dedicated to Aiden (not in reference to the tombs) :))
More tombs and interesting trees.
This brings our trip to an end. It was so nice to have the Wiehlers here. Jeff is actually still in Korea and also stayed with us for a few days after mom and dad left. He is volunteering on an organic farm these days. We look forward to seeing him again in a couple of weeks.