In Taejon - hit the decks running!

Sat. March 8, 2008
Following the 15.5 hour non-stop flight from Atlanta, Rev. Kim met me at Incheon Airport, Seoul, and we hopped a bus for the 3 hour ride to Taejon and Pai Chai University. They had prepared the apartment for my arrival and a night's bed rest never felt so good!

The next morning, Rev. Kim came to walk with me to the office. It's only a 5 minute walk, but up hill, and I do mean UP HILL! In fact, it's so steep we have to lean forward while climbing. My lower body and heart should be in great shape by the end of May! Yeah, going down we lean backwards!

We met with Rev. Dr. Zang, President of the Department of Welfare and Theology in the College of Humanities. He outlined my teaching duties and other responsibilities. One of those will be to join them on Tuesday afternoon and give a talk at the "prison for foreigners." Most inmates are from China, the Philippines and the USA and speak English. As it coincides with class time, they've arranged for transportation for my students to join us. This should be interesting!

Following lunch in the faculty cafeteria, An Na Choi, my assistant, took me to the bank to exchange USD to KRW then I tested out the ATM with my credit card. It's a bit scary to punch in $10,000 praying all the while that you've actually punched in the equivalent of $10.00USD. It worked!

We went grocery shopping in the traditional market place, An Na introduced me to the cleaners and showed me the best place to buy bread. It reminded me alot of the market in Cambodia --busy, tight spaces, raw fish on open display, a wide variety of smells and colorful visuals! We ran into a Mrs. Kim who said she'd be in my Sunday School class. There are lots of Mrs. Kims here, just hope to get them all straight. I was the object of surprise when three school-aged children passed by. They stopped, looked me over and when I smiled, waved and said hello in Koren, they laughed, waved and said, "Bye!" I don't know why they were laughing because I know I said hello right! = ;)

So far on TV, the only thing I can get that I understand is Lorin Maazel and the NY Symphony Orchestra. Not a bad thing at all as it's one of my favorites, but a bit of US news would be great. Will settle for the same on the internet. No problem.

For those of you reading this who've had our training for Individual Volunteers, I've hit the deck running so fast I think I'm still in the euphoric stage. Will let you know after classes next week!

JB