Christmas Vacation Part 2: Korea Meets Kris

Tuesday morning, December 28^th, my uncle walked me to Hiyoshi Station, where I would start my adventure to the unknown. The itinerary for the day: Train,

transfer, train #2, transfer #2, train #3, fly to Korea, subway, two more transfters and 2 more subways, then walk to and find my friends empty apartment be

cause they were at work. The only thing that was familiar to me was the train from Hiyoshi to Yokohama station. Everything after that….brand new….which was a little scary to think about because it would be been really easy to get on a train and not know its going the wrong way. But, my uncle helped by giving instructions of what trains to catch…but still, not the most relaxing travel day.

Well, I made it to the airport with no problems and was there 2 hours early, so I was feeling good…for a while. When I went through immigration in Japan, my Alien registration card was taken away. I didn’t really know the rules about how I was supposed to get a re-entry permit, but I guess I need to get a new one now. I asked the customs agent if its going to be a problem getting a new one, or getting back into the country, and he reassured me that it will not be a problem. But, I sure didn’t like the feeling of traveling around without my card.

Enough with all the travel drama, I’ll just fast forward to where I met up with an old friend at the Express Bus terminal. Ben Olso, a friend from back in the days when our family went to Rock of Ages. I just found out that he was teaching in Korea before I left and so we got in touch and planned to meet up there. He had the week off, so while my old roommate, Joe, and his wife Marie were teaching, Ben showed me around Seoul.

I can’t express enough how awesome and good it was to see and hang out with people that could speak English, and were the same age as me. Joe and I were roommates our last two years at Trinity, and I got to know Marie though Joe, as they were dating at the time, and now married. I am so lucky to have friends like these that are willing to let me sleep on their couch for 5 nights, and take up space in what is already a small apartment. That being said, we had lots of fun together as the brought me to some of their favorite restaurants for dinner, showed me some cool markets, and places to sight see. Everywhere we went, there was always some sort of laughter, something to share about teaching English, or just fun, good ol’ conversation.

It was really nice to see and hang out with Ben too. The last time I saw him was at my cousin’s grad party two years ago, but even then, we didn’t catch up on all that much. So, there was lots of ground to cover in that standpoint. Like I mentioned earlier, while Joe and Marie were teaching, Ben took me around, and showed me lots of stuff. I don’t really remember any of the names of the places we went to, but you can check out some of my photos from places I visited.

I found that getting around Korea was much easier and much cheaper then in Japan (well, Sendai to be more specific. I haven’t spent enough time in Tokyo to give it a fair comparison). They have these little things that dangle from your phone called ‘T-money,’ and you can use it to ride the subway, bus or taxi. Once you preload your money, you are good to go. Another thing that I found interesting is that Korea has seemed to adopt western culture more than Japan. There was much more familiar food, and English is more second nature then in Japan. It seems that everyone in the service industry had some handle on it, and people are much more willing to come up and talk and practice their English with you (which is a story that I will save for another post). Well, there can probably be much more said about the trip, but I will leave it with that for now. Perhaps if we ever skype, I can get more into detail about places I went, or stories to share.

I was riding the bus to Gimpo Airport at 5:15 in the morning, I was reflecting on the past week, and how this was a vacati

on and a trip that I will never forget. So many good memories, made with great people. We had good laughs, and created stories to share with each other the next time we meet.

Thank you Ben for showing me around, and Thanks you Thank you So much Vrooms for letting me stay with you guys. I will miss you guys, but I hope that we will continue to keep in touch!

God Bless!