Man on a Mission: See ya' in Korea (Days Gone By Part II)

What's good, party people?!

(Traditional Filipino greeting)

Kidding.

What I'm not kidding about is how clever the title of this post is.

Let's take a moment to appreciate that, shall we....

Done? Good.

Now on with Part II of my past month leading up to my actual placement in Bontoc.

This time - the wonderful land of South Korea.

Okay...mostly wonderful...

Let's get started

So I didn't just wake up and decide one morning that I'd had enough of the Philippines and needed a change of pace after a week - I was actually in Korea for a purpose. That purpose was the Episcopal Asiamerica Ministries Conference in Seoul. The conference brought together the myriad Asian Episcopal churches with The Episcopal Church in America to discuss the catholic (lower-case "c" intentional) Church's reconciliation as a whole and also to celebrate the 125th Anniversary of the Episcopal Church in Korea.

The gate to one of those first few Episcopal Churches in Korea

The 125th Anniversary Celebration Service

Apparently I was even on Korean TV

Yeong-eo haseyo? The Philippines is notable among Asian countries for the wide proliferation of the English language. Even in my current town deep in the mountains, English is spoken by nearly everyone to one degree or another (although the native Kankana-a'ey/Ifontok is highly preferred.) Korea? Not so much. If you don't speak Korean in Korea, you're going to have to try a lot harder to get your message across or to understand what's going on.

This doesn't look important...

Let's add this to the list of jobs I want: During our time in Korea, we got to have "tea" (which ended up being coffee - score!) at the US Ambassador to South Korea's house. Unfortunately he wasn't there, but it was still a very cool experience. Plus Charlotte, Carlin, and I got to talk to one of the Foreign Service Officers about the process of becoming an FSO and his experiences with the job. Very cool. Not to mention the house was terrific and he had some cool mementos.

Gamsahamnida, Obama...

One of the perks of being Ambassador is you have armed guards to get the kids off your lawn.

And stone lions. (At least I'm like 95% sure those are some kind of lions.)

Sweet party, bro

Wait, Korea has islands? The next day we took a tour out to Ganghwa Island and some of the earliest Episcopal churches in Korea. We saw a lot of history and beautiful country (as well as continued our delicious Korean culinary adventure) At the end of the day we also saw a cultural show which began with performances by musicians using the ancient native instruments of Korea and ended with modern Korean music performances in varied styles with those instruments mixed in. And then they closed with "Havah Nagila"...which was probably the last thing I was expecting...

This just screams "Time for a Hebrew folk song"

Wait a minute, this bus doesn't have a toilet...

Seoul from afar

On the grounds of one of the first Korean Episcopal churches

You're going to see a lot of sunsets on this blog

No bridge over troubled waters: When we got on the bus to take our tour, there was talk of taking another tour out the next day to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) 4km away from the border to get a look over at North Korea. Little did we know though that in the middle of our tour that day we would be going to the Ganghwa Peace Observatory *2* km across the river from North Korea! Woah.

It ended up being one of the highlights of the time we spent that week. Turns out North Korea is actually pretty beautiful. Plus, it drives home the idea of the true meaninglessness of borders until human minds get ahold of them. I mean, DPRK is right. there. I could have literally swam to it (well, maybe walked...the river looked kinda shallow) but it was an entirely different realm over there. But there they were - kids playing, people living their lives - all set to a backdrop of a beautiful afternoon and a Korean lament playing for the separation of the families caused by the senseless division of a nation. Heartbreaking and poetic all in one vast and powerful experience.

I'm guessing those boxes don't have candy and presents in them...

Because tanks needed to look meaner

So close, yet so incredibly far

2015-2016 YASC Team Asia.

Except for James. Good going, James.

Last minute high-rolling: Some other highlights included a banquet with the Archbishop of Korea and the Mayor of Seoul on our last two nights. There was a-mazing food (really the food the entire time was quite good) and musicians to accompany it as well as getting to spend time with some truly great people that had come for the conference. And of course to see our wonderful YASC staff again for the first time since training (and probably for me the last time for the rest of the year.)

All currently serving members of YASC team Asia and the staff.

Yes, even James.

I got friends in Seoul places: I even got to spend some time with my friend Eunmi which was a treat partly because since she is a native of Seoul and showed me around to some of the cool spots near where I was staying, but mostly because I hadn't seen her since she came back to Korea.

Other takeaways: I loved Seoul. I'll definitely want to get back to it at some point in my life, which is cool since without this conference I would have never known what I was missing. And I only even saw a sliver of the city, let alone the country. Plus, they have Wifi you can carry around in your pocket, amazing food, enormous streets and a public transit system that should make New York's subway ashamed of itself (and makes Austin's public transit look like even less of nothing than it already did...)

WHEN WE RETURN:

Time for the last installment of the blog leading up to the present(ish).

Also the first appearance in my blog of the city where I'll be living and working (most of the time) during the course of the year - Bontoc.

Gawis ay Mountain Province!

Until next time. Here's a few more pics for your perusing pleasure.