Back to Seoul

Pardon my short posts lately.. My keyboard has lost power and I have to manually toe on the touchpad of my ipad, and I am very slow at it. So, I may have to embellish these posts later as I don't have the time to write for long. This is long post as I am writing it on a 4 hour bus ride.

It's now Sunday and we had two days in Busan and are on our way back to Seoul. We are riding on a bus for 4 hours. We are watching a Korean drama on the big screen....here is a picture with the kids watching.

Busan was a  beautifully city and we wish we could have stayed there longer. Our hotel was right on Hyundai beach. We spent yesterday first at the orphanage Ae Ran San in Busan where there were about 70 children from baby to about 14. We were able to spend some time with some of the younger kids and play with them a bit. Claire brought some bubbles from home and had fun blowing them for the kids who chased them. There was one little guy who was enamored by her and this and stayed by her side for the longest time. Here she is laughing as the boy was blowing his own bubbles with his saliva!

But she was most interested in holding the babies and she had her chance to do so.

It was an excellent experience and rather sobering too, thinking of the children there who had to live there. Most of the children had single parents who could not care for them, but they would not allow them to be adopted. Some of their parents placed them there for an extended period of time hoping someday to come and get them.

Then off to another lunch buffet .... Been doing a lot of those! Lots of various Korean foods and seafood and some with American versions of food like pizza ...kimchi or Bulgogi pizza. After lunch we visited a fish market...it was totally awesome to see all the various fish and squid and octopus. Lots of pictures taken. Many of the kids were grossed out by the sights and fish smells, but it was an experience no one will forget I am sure.

Then shopping at a market area and back to the hotel to get ready for our host dinner. Families in the Busan area volunteered to host our families at  their home for dinner. We met them at the hotel and they brought us to dinner. Ours took us out to dinner at a Hawaiian buffet, then we walked along the beach all the way to their hi rise apartment home. The father of our host family was an American who works for the US army as a physical security officer for Korean citizens. He married a Korean woman and they have a five year old daughter. They live on the 19th floor of a luxury apartment...it was gorgeous. Lots of space and marble and the most amazing view. They will be moving to the US before the year ends. The father had lots to say and was very candid in answering all our questions, both mundane and political. It was really interesting and a great opportunity to truly learn about life in Korea, especially for an expat.

We just stopped at a rest stop on the highway...nothing at all like the rest stops in Wisconsin. It was almost like a street fair. Fried foods on sticks (including seafood) and shops and souvenirs. We had ice cream and "Chinese" pancakes  filled with hot cinnamon sugar. Now back on the bus. 

It is so mountainous here and are often driving through long dark tunnels cut though the mountains. Haven't taken too many pictures with my ipad, The only way to post them to this blog is if I take them with the ipad. Here is one picture from the moving bus.