DAY 3 - Home-Stay Family, Seoul Tower, Palace, School fo Etiquette - June 17, 2009

The schedule here is always very busy and gives us maybe 15-30 minutes to look through a souvenir shop, and evenings are busy also with the host family. The family we are staying with is great. It is a family of five - 9 and 13-year old boys and a 16-year old girl who is the only one that speaks English well enough to have a normal conversation with. The mother speaks with some English words and gestures and so do the boys. We only saw the father one time at his work (he is a firefighter-took some nice photos there) and another time when our family hosted a dinner (kalbi bbq). The family is very traditional with respect to food and education. The house is on a hillside overlooking a part of Seoul with lots of greenery around. The family just adores Alex and bought him a box of 84 walnut cakes, each walnut cake separately wrapped. Also bought him a bag full of seasoned dired seaweed and Korean books. I will have to see how I am going to get all this home?

Today we visited the Seoul Tower, a palace, and a old school of etiquette where we learned how to bow and drink tea. It was a tight schedule. Tomorrow should be a bit more relaxed. We are going to make Korean paper and see some dances and other folklore things in the area around SWS (Social Welfar Society,or adoption agency).

We have to get ready now to take the morning bus to our group meeting place because driving in rush hour takes too long and buses have reserved lanes. The mother always accompanies us on the bus and at the meeting place until the group is together. Tomorrow they will take us to a seafood restaurant (our last night with them).

WILLEM'S LATER ADDITION + PICS: Had a wonderful day at Etiquette School (Sung Kyun Kwan Propriety School) Learned about tea ceremony. Kids loved it and were all well behaved despite the seriousness of the whole affair! This was the day that I had to walk out to answer Mom's call from home (our first call). The children were all into the tea ceremony, as the bowing ceremony.

Next stop was the Changdeokgung Palace (palace where all royal families used to live). It was a guided tour and the woman didn't speak English very clearly, but the buildings were fantastic (Mom adding a "photographer's dream" as read somewhere else). Alex likes looking at the buildings, especially the dark holes and small doors. I think the kids would have liked to do the tour on their own with lots of free running. It was also a very hot day.

Next we went up the Seoul Tower. They changed things there since we last visited it. The totem poles are gone, including the one that was somewhat shocking in the souvernir shop. Of course, Alex liked the elevator ride to the top and the sites from the top of the tower. It was hazy and hot and could not see very far. Down from the tower along a fence were thousands and thousands of locks. Couples say their promise of love to each other put a lock on the fence and throw away the key. There were also preformances of ribbon dances and tightrope dancers.