The Seoul Report - A Guide for Travelers

50 Things We Want to Share About Our Korea Trip

My wife and I adopted our baby boy, Quinn Seong Wook, from South Korea in the spring of 2008. Right after we got back, and while our trip was still fresh on our minds, I compiled this report/summary of our thoughts and feelings about the country of South Korea and how to get the most out of your short visit there. Hopefully this will help prepare those who will one day travel to this amazing country! Understand these are just our opinions based on our experiences, but I sure hope they help. We have a real desire to help other families adopting from Seoul. We have compiled tons of FAQs, maps, brochures, and websites. I will list some of them in this report, but please email me or my wife anytime! Jules75@charter.net or jbsmedia@charter.net. Also, our son’s blog has a ton of info on it as well. It is www.luvfromasia.blogspot.com. I encourage everyone to set up an adoption blog – you will wish you did.

Written in April 2008: There is so much to share it will be hard to get it all in and I am sure I will update the list below from time to time. But in general, our trip to Seoul was probably our favorite so far. We have been all over the U.S. and to places in Mexico and Canada, but Seoul would near the top of our list for sure for a variety of reasons. There is much we as American’s (and the rest of the world for that matter) could learn from this small nation and the people that live there.

If you are traveling to Seoul, below is a detailed list of the things we noticed, notes that might help, places we recommend seeing/doing and our thoughts in general. There is no particular order and some are related specifically to our adoption through Dillon/Eastern. We will just list them as we think of them with necessary notes and explanations as needed. Here we go:

1. The Korean people are SUPER friendly, nice and charming! Be prepared for people to try and help you even if they cannot speak English. And, let them do so as it is their way of showing kindness and showing their pride as a Korean. As Americans it is easy to shun away from help out of fear a hand will be extended at the end wanting some money. This does not happen there. Just go with the flow!

2. Seoul is very clean considering it is the most populated city in the world! (Certainly cleaner than NYC, LA, and or even the DFW area). It was hard to find a cigarette butt much less trash lying around. You can use the bathrooms anywhere and we were blown away by how clean places like McDonalds were. Julie and I were amazed when we thought about how nasty our fast food places are back in the U.S.. Even the customers help with the cause. We took great care to not be “dirty Americans” while we were there. There are certain things they expect even customers to do to help keep things nice. They take care of their things in Korea. One reason why is next on the list.

3. The Korean people are very proud of their country, their history and what they personally are responsible for. Even the janitors in Korea have their photos posted outside the bathrooms! Can you imagine that here!? It truly is remarkable and humbling to be in this country that just 50 years ago was completely destroyed by war. Though Seoul is very westernized, you can still feel and see the Korean tradition in nearly everything.

4. Customer Service is a top priority! The Korean people certainly know how to express their pride and sense of excellence. Everywhere we went we were treated with respect beyond words. People in Korea are thankful to have jobs, a business or a career. They express that thankfulness in the manner by which they assist their clients and customers. And, I don’t mean to just tourists either. We went to the local E-mart and before they opened the doors the entire staff gathered in front of the glass doors and went through a routine of sorts, including short bows to one another and what looked like a prayer. Then they greeted the customers as they opened the doors and people walked in! Can you imagine this at your local dirty Walmart!!! Yea, right! And, in most stores there were more employees than customers waiting and willing to help anyone. It was so refreshing and made being in the stores pleasant! Actually made you want to spend more money! Wow, what rocket science – treat people with respect and good service and they will make your business successful! Funny how most American stores have lost all sense of this, if they ever had it to begin with. It will make you clearly understand how poor employee performance here in the States really is. I run a business myself and I would hire Koreans in a heartbeat if I could.

5. Times Square looks dark compared to this City of Lights! Seriously, nearly every street in Seoul looks like Times Square – lights and signs EVERYWHERE. Imagine Times Square on every street in NYC and that is what you have in Seoul.

6. You will not see it all in a few days! We did the Seoul trip in 5 days, 2 of which were travel days. Even if we would have had a week or two, there was no way we would have seen it all. So, prioritize your list of places to see and get busy! You can sleep when you get back.

7. South Korea is the size of Alabama but has more to offer than California. If you can get your hands on the Korean Tourist Guide (see below), you will quickly realize how much there is to do and how much time it would take someone to do it all. Unlike the U.S. where we only have a few hundred years of real history, Korea has thousands of years of history. Not to mention all of the more modern places that look so appealing. One visiting South Korea will quickly realize you could get lost in Seoul alone for days if not weeks. We cannot wait to go back and see the rest of Seoul and tour the other parts of this beautiful nation.

8. The people at Eastern Social Welfare Society are amazing! Words will never be able to truly express how wonderful the people at Eastern are. There is a little man that works in the lobby that I will never forget. So sweet and kind and he was very welcoming and funny too! From him all the way to the Founder, Dr. Kim, and President, Dr. Jin Sook, we were constantly in awe of their love, graciousness, humility and attitudes. The ladies in the nursery work their tails off feeding, rocking and changing babies. Eastern does a lot more than just what you see in Seoul too. We had no idea how extensive their help was. We plan to be monthly financial supporters of Eastern in honor of son and we encourage you to do the same. I asked Dr. Kim what they needed most from Americans, and he said right now, they need financial help. They are building more homes for special needs children and other places for older kids too. Just incredible. Meeting these people has changed us from the inside out, forever. Few people exemplify Christ as the people we dealt with at Eastern do.

9. Stay at Eastern if you can. We were fortunate to be able to stay at Eastern and are so glad we did. I wanted to have the comfort of a western-like hotel, but Eastern had an opening and we decided to stay there. They had everything we needed, the rooms were very nice, the showers were great, everything was immaculate and clean, and you could just take the elevator down for your meetings, and to rock babies. Stay there if you can. If not, Hotel Seokyo and CasaVill are just a few “Seoul blocks” away around the corner.

10. Prepare to walk FOR-EVVVV-ERRRR! Yep, the city is built knowing most people walk everywhere they go. You will quickly find how Koreans stay in shape! There are more stairs in Seoul than it would take to build a real stairway to heaven. Just be ready. Your feet will be toast by the time you hit the sack each night.

11. The SMS subway system is the way to go.It is super easy. But we highly recommend you buy a subway DAY CARD instead of tickets one at time. Then, all you do is slap it on top of the turnstiles and walk on through. Be prepared for NO TALKIN on the subway either. They do nothing but text-message each other or sleep. The trains are super quiet too; to the point where it is strange. Also, prepare for more people per square foot than you could imagine at times and around the Eastern area, but it is not bad. Just go with the flow. The trains are super clean and very fast between stops – no more than 2 minutes usually. This is a great way to get into the culture and feel of Seoul and its amazing people.

NOTE: Kill some time on the flight by figuring out where places are that you want to see/do and marking them on the Subway map. I have one scanned I can email to you as a .pdf (see email above). You can also find it online by clicking here: http://www.nsubway.co.kr/korea/seoul/seoulsubwaymapen.htm

12. Take the “Seoul City Tour Bus”. We wasted 4 hours one morning walking around everywhere, when if we had just gotten on the “city tour bus” we would have been driven to most places on our list to see in comfort with headphones telling us all about where we were headed. It only costs $7each for a day pass and we took the “Downtown Tour” which goes to most of the places listed above. You can get off and on as you like and the buses run every 30mins. We suggest you do this the first day, and then the rest of your days you should take the subway to other places not on the tour.

Either way, here is the key! It is hard to locate the starting point! There are tons of bus stops along the way, but we found an easy stop located just outside the main entrance of the Gyeongbukdong Palace - which is located down from the U.S. Embassy and Kyobo bookstore. So, take the subway to that station, visit the bookstore, and then walk down to the palace a few blocks at the end of that street. The palace is huge and the street dead ends into it, so you won’t miss it. Tour the palace area and then look for the bus tour starting point right outside the palace walls, by the main entrance. There is no street sign, but instead a half blue/half white POLE (like a metal telephone pole that says “City Tour Bus” on it). If you were looking at the palace from the front, the city tour bus pole would be located on the right sidewalk down the street, by the curb, about 100 yards, just past and outside the entrance to the palace area. The bus will stop on the half hour and you pay for your ticket when you get on. The palace is essentially the first stop out of about 26 it makes. I have a scanned brochure I can email you as a .pdf. just let me know via email. You can also call 02-1330 locally in Seoul and they can help you, which is how we found it after an hour of walking right by it more than once!

13. Must See Places – please realize we did not get to see all of the one’s others recommend, but of those places we did visit there were one’s we were very happy we did get to!

- Insadong
- World Cup Stadium
- Korean War Museum (largest war museum in the world. Plan to spend a few hours)
- Namdaemun
- N’Seoul Tower (prepare to walk up the hill from beyond!)
- A palace of some kind (we went to Gyeongbukdong which was by US Embassy)

14. Kyobo Bookstore will blow your mind. Look for books on Korea in the travel section for some incredible books you cannot find here in the U.S. Plus we got some children books with both Korean and English in them which was really neat for our new child and our kids back home. We also bought some Korean pop music (a lot of it is in English) and Korean techno just for kicks. We listened to music for about 30mins with hands-on help too. It was awesome. Kyobo makes Barnes & Noble look like a Seven Eleven. They sell music, books, jewelry, gifts, etc and they have a nice food court to rest and eat. Plus, they will ship whatever you buy back to your hotel or Eastern at no cost! Just have your address with you in Korean at all times. They offered to do this since they knew we were sightseeing. Incredible customer service!

15. You must rock babies at Eastern. Nothing will make your stay more real than spending some time “paying forward” by rocking newborns in the nursery. What an experience. Especially knowing you are likely rocking someone’s future referral and that in the past someone likely rocked your child. We spent that time singing to them, talking to them and praying over them for their futures. It was awesome and was a great way to end the night. (This can be done right before you get to bed each night).

16. Use the KTO Tourism website and book! Look for “Korea Travel Guide”. Get one ahead of time to study on flight if you can and take it with you everywhere you go! This book tells you where everything is in Seoul and which subway stations/trains to use to get there. Eastern should have a few when you get there but you never know. You can see the e-book version here: http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/index.kto .

You cannot find an actual printed copy here in the U.S. anywhere so I printed this e-book out one page at a time and it took forever. I suggest calling them and seeing if you can get one mailed to you. It is such a great time killer on the flight too.

Here is their contact info:
Major Functions：Providing travels information, Reservations for transportations and travel packages, exhibitions related to Hallyu and Korean traditional culture and etc.
Business Hours：09:00 ~ 20:00, open all year round
Location：B1, KTO building (T2 Tower), 40, Cheongyecheonno, Jung-gu, Seoul 100-180
Travel Information：+82-2-1330 (24hours) / Tel: +82-2-7299-497~499
Fax：+82-2-319-0086
E-mail：kntotic@mail.knto.or.kr

17. Backpacks are a must! We both had backpacks for carry-on items and we used Julie’s for our sightseeing. It was super handy as we went all over the city.

18. The flights – yes, they are long, but not that bad! I cannot explain how it went faster, other than to say - the GPS tracking on the screens, the anticipation of meeting our son, the excitement about Korea, the movies and shows and the constant service by the stewardess made it seem like nothing more than a normal long flight. I did bring my IPOD, tons of magazines and other reading materials but I never really used them. I spent a lot of time reading about Seoul and marking things to do on our subway map and tourist book. The planes are so big and walking around is easy. I was really concerned about the flight before we left, but once we got moving time seemed to go by quickly. Julie was able to sleep more than I could. We flew on a Korean Air 777-200, but it was an older model. If you can online to http://www.seatguru.com/ you can see the plane layout, once you know what plane you will take over there, which helped us when buying our tickets too! Just make sure if you go with Korean Air that your plane is not an older model that has not been refurbished yet like ours was. Ask for bulkhead seating and a bassinette on the flight home too and let them know you will have a baby!

19. Take your cell phone – use (02) 1330 – in Seoul. We are Verizon users, but Seoul is a large city, so call your provider and ask them to add international service to your phone account if you can. They should have service in Seoul. If not, see if you can rent one before you leave. Ours required some programming before we left and we had to learn how to dial back to the US from Seoul which was easy. (You simply dial 001+1+area code+number). We are so glad we had our phone. Plus, we dialed the Seoul tourist help line above many times as they had English speaking agents to help us when we got lost! You can rent phones in Seoul, but you will not want to mess with all of that once you get there. Do it before hand.

20. Bring sleep aids to help at night. Some suggest Ambien, Tylenol PM, etc. Whatever works for you, but when you cannot get to sleep at night these will help. If you stay at Eastern you will hear the sounds of the city streets, so I brought a portable white noise maker to help drown out the sounds so I could sleep. We left it there so look for it.

21. You might feel like an alien if you are not of Asian decent. This was very strange for us in two ways. One, we have never truly been in a setting where we were literally big minorities. What a learning experience that was. Wow. Second, in America we are used to seeing people of all nationalities so we have never really looked at people or starred at them like some Korean’s did us a few times. It was never really bothersome as we expected it. But we truly were the only non-Asian people for miles at times. They were never rude about it, just curious so we understood. I guess we did look like people from outer space who just parked our spaceship around the corner.

22. When it comes to shopping, Insadong must get the most time. We shopped at Namdaemun, Dongdaemun, Itaewon, a local E-mart and the World Cup Mall. Namdaemun was very cool, but Itaewon was all clothes and very Americanized (that is where the new Hard Rock is located). Insadong we found on our last day with less than 2 hours to give and it was the best for authentic Korean items and handcrafted gifts such as name scrolls, name chops, etc. It was VERY cool. Plan to spend a day there at least.

23. Take tons of pictures and video. You will miss this place when you come home. Make sure and bring a ton of memory cards and a photocard reader to share your photos while you are there. (see below). I made an entire DVD of all of the video I shot everyday for our son later. I filmed nearly everything. But this is not unusual of me either! We also brought a disposable camera and took pictures of our baby with the foster mom and during our visits. We gave the camera to her as a last keepsake and she really loved it and was shocked we did it.

24. Motorcycles rule the city streets AND SIDEWALKS! It is wild to see motorcycles that appear to have road rules of their own. But considering the price per litter of gas over there is nearly $1, it makes sense. There is even a motorcycle road somewhere along the end of the Bus Tour route; a street with nothing but bike shops for about a mile. That is where the Harley Davidson Seoul store is.

25. Korea has few natural resources. Because the country is so small, even if they did they would save the land instead of using it to build factories. This is why the save paper goods and other things. The have to import nearly everything except cars and electronics. Few own homes as those who own the land and real estate have to be very wealthy, since land is at such a premium.

26. Beware of “Made in China” items – ask if made in Korea. It should be important to buy things made in Korea, when possible. Though we did buy some items not made there, and simply decided “well, at least we BOUGHT it in Korea!”

27. Hyundai and Kia rule the car world in Seoul. Though we did see a few American cars, most where their own brand and almost every one of them I saw was clean as a whistle and had leather interior.

28. This entire city was re-built in just 50 years! It just boggles the mind when you see it too and realize (after studying about Korea and the war) that the war completely wiped out Seoul just 50 years ago, and yet now it is the most populated city in the world, has hosted an Olympics, World Cup, has one of the best subway systems in the world, and uses the most advanced technology ever seen in a large city. The Korean people are truly amazing in their resolve and ability to act quickly.

29. Everything in Seoul appears to be about eating and shopping. We still cannot believe the amount of restaurants and shops there are in Seoul. It will confound the mind when you see it. Vendors line the streets selling all kinds of foods and items. And the malls are so big you just cannot comprehend it. Your jaw will drop when you see some of them! Ladies, you could go a little crazy in a place like Seoul.

30. Other places we did not get to see but really wanted to:

- the Han River Bridges at night (over 20 of them)
- Korean Folk Village
- COEX Mall
- DMZ Tour (was closed)
- Cheonggye Stream during day and night
- Olympic Park
- Lotte World
- National Theater
- various amusement parks and safari’s

31. Pack in order to have 2-3 suitcases empty for items to bring home. Bring a portable duffle bag for dirty clothes then use your suitcases for breakable items. We also learned the secret of storage bags for your clothes. They suck all of the air out and give you the ability to get 2-3 times the space out of your suitcases! It is unreal! Clothes are a little wrinkled but you can just iron them when get up each morning. You can get both of these at Target or WalMart in their travel/luggage section. YOU WILL buy more than you realize if you tour the area. This might be the only chance you have to buy items from your child’s homeland so don’t be stingy and cheap! We took 2 backpacks, 1 large suitcase and 2 carry-on suitcases for the two of us. We checked all but the backpacks. They have free luggage carts at the Incheon airport so it is easy to get out the airport to the driver or taxi.

32. You will not be able to “out-gift” the Eastern staff or foster parents, more than likely. Bring more than you are thinking of for them or you might feel bad. We had a small carry-on type suitcase full of just gifts to give people. All of them were made in U.S. (which is very important but hard to do!) and many were Texas related. They loved it. Some foster parents don’t have much to buy gifts for you, but some will go overboard. We figured we would just bless them no matter what!

33. Study Korea and Seoul before you leave. Learn all you can. Get tourism books at Barnes & Noble, record all “Seoul” “Korea” keyword shows on your DVR and watch anything you can. It will really help you feel more comfortable and it will make your trip more meaningful! Here are some great websites for info too:

http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/index.kto
www.lifeinkorea.com
http://www.korea.net/
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/south-korea/
http://seoul.usembassy.gov/ (register with them too so they know you are there)
www.survivalphrases.com this teaches you words and about Seoul!

34. Watch the National Geographic show “Inside North Korea”. Great show about North Korea to learn what the South Korean people deal with in terms of their history and emotions. It is hard to watch but very captivating and will make you proud of South Korea! Your child’s family history likely includes some family members who either still live in North Korea or did at one point. You can also get this on DVD on Ebay or from their website. http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/channel/blog/2007/02/explorer_korea.html

35. Learn some Korean phrases! www.survivalphrases.com is wonderful and easy to use. We wrote them on out notecards (like it sounded to us) and carried them with us. You will need to know at least these phrases: thank you, picture, this is good, hello, goodbye, how much?, English?, yes, no, this/that, please, excuse me (this one for sure as you will run into people all the time)

36. Have friends track your flight to Seoul live. www.flightstats.com is easy and it makes it fun for people to watch your progress. Just give them the airline, flight number and departure/arrival info. Some of our friends and family watched us online as we flew and it was neat for both them and us!

37. You will be tired and your schedule will be messed up. Just prepare for it. It is strange but kind of a neat experience too. We basically did nothing the afternoon we got there and crashed around 7pm local time. Read about “jetlag” online and that will help some. If you arrive during the day, try and stay up as long as you can. Pretty much every night we got up between 3- 5am, if not earlier, not matter what time we hit the sack. Others were there from the U.S. at the same time and we would meet each other in the computer room because none of us could sleep past 5am. (We laughed as we raced to get to the computers first.) It was very weird instant messaging family and friends at 5am Seoul time while they were getting ready for bed back home, the day before us!

38. Eastern has a great computer lab so leave the laptop at home. The lab has 2 computers where you can use Internet Explorer, AOL, and Yahoo IM. You can basically get to any website you need to, but some of the texts on the programs are in Korean. But it’s not hard and sure makes traveling easier. IMPORTANT NOTE – take a USB photo-card reader so you can copy photos to a temp folder and then load them up to your Blog or photo sharing site, etc. for friends and family back home.

39. Set up a Blog so you can journal your days while in Seoul. We use www.blogger.com. It is a great way to keep everyone informed each day of what happened (our friends and family would get up early Texas time to see what we had updated during the night! I was tired but I did it to help them feel involved in the journey). Doing this is also a great keepsake for your child of your experiences and thoughts while in their homeland. Plus, it will give you something to do at 3:30am when you cannot sleep anymore!

40. Korean Air was our best airline experience ever. We were amazed by their professionalism, service, comfort, food and more. I will always fly with them when possible. Plus, your Korean strip gets started on the flight as the entire staff is Korean, they will serve Korean food (if you want it) and they will show some Korean shows. Makes the hours pass. Play around on the Korean Air website before you leave. They have lots of great info about their services, the flights, and Korea.

41. Read the Guest Books at Eastern. Each floor at Eastern has a kitchen area where it is nice to have breakfast, read or sit and think. There are journals where previous parents have written and journaled their thoughts on their visit. This was such a great thing to read that first night we got there! It was very emotional to read entries from years ago knowing those people are all over the world now with children. Plus they have some great advice that we certainly heeded for our sightseeing, a lot of which is now in this document. We added our thoughts too and encourage you to do the same before you leave. We stayed on the 6th floor and I know there were a few in our kitchen so look for them on your floor if you stay there or even if you don’t.

42. Seoul is very safe. We never felt threatened or worried at any point during our trip. I was amazed at how comfortable we both felt and never really even thought about not being safe. Funny, because here in Dallas I think about being unsafe when I get gas! And, that includes hours of walking around late at night; in the subways, or in the underground tunnels we walked through. It was so peaceful and surreal. Few people lock their doors and you are more than welcome to take a nice walk in the early morning hours to think, pray or clear your mind. It was wonderful. I am sure there is crime because human nature is still human nature, but we never saw it. We saw one police car the entire time we were there.

43. The people of Korea are laid back and simple. They work, they eat, they shop and they spend time with family. Students do nothing but study and eat. That is about it. It was so cool to be walking down the streets of downtown Seoul and see a group of people sitting in chairs right on the sidewalk playing games, sharing a drink or seating. You will see this everywhere too. You would never see this is America, mainly for fear of being robbed or worse.

44. You cannot find regular iced tea in Seoul and coffee is not easy to find either! I drink a lot of tea, so I was dying by the time we got home. Water, juice and colas were about all liquids we had. Next time I will bring some Lipton bags. Few drinks in Seoul are served with ice either; lots of hot teas and drinks or room- temperature water.

45. Get some Korean WON from your bank before you leave. All you have to do is go to your local bank and ask them for an exchange. It took our bank about 3 days to get the money for us, but we needed WON before we even got to Eastern and I was so glad we did. Get a few hundred dollars or more if you can. It just saves a big hassle of doing it at the airport which is crazy busy.

46. The Koreans love to dazzle and the “wow” factor is huge. One thing we learned quickly is that it is very true that image is important to all Koreans and they take great pride in what they can do. They do not like to be embarrassed and “saving face” is very much a normal practice. They love to give gifts and serve. They also love to dazzle and wow people. The movie theaters, malls and buildings are like some you have never seen; way over the top from our American perspective. It is like an art. We even noticed that when they build a new building or structure they cover it with drapes or temporary walls as they build it to “hide” the unfinished product. Then I can imagine they cut the drapes off in one big moment to dazzle everyone and be proud. This is so neat. (NOTE – WalMart just left the Korea market and Koreans say it is because their stores and product presentations were too boring. These were huge, state of art stores too!)

47. The elderly are treated with respect - by everyone. We saw this play out with all ages too. Even young people, for the most part, would move to let an older man or woman have their seat. You don’t sit until the oldest sits first, you don’t eat until the oldest starts, etc. It was neat to see this still take place somewhere in the world.

48. Eastern is located in a college district. There are two or three universities in that area. Because of this, you can find lots of western food places, convenience stores, and shopping is close by. It is a great way to see how the young Korean world operates. You will quickly see there are few differences between them and young Americans, except they seem to dress to impress! (No baggies jeans that we could see.) But, it is crowded on the streets and in the subways most of the time. Once you get away from that area it thins out except during rush hours and then it is just crazy but fun.

49. Don’t worry about dressing up for sightseeing. We were worried about this because we did not want to look like American slobs, but besides our meetings with Eastern, we wore jeans and tennis shoes and thank God we did. Dress cool during the spring and summer as it is VERY HUMID too and the Koreans are used to it being very hot in most places. Take comfortable shoes and lots of socks!

50. As soon as you leave, you will miss it. It did not take long for us to start talking about going back. Now we are planning on taking future mission trips over there with other adoptive parents we have met to serve at Eastern and do more sightseeing. There is just so much more to do and see, and learn!


In summary, there were many, many things we learned from our short week in Korea. We were given a renewed sense of the good in humanity. The Koreans are such sweet people and it was so refreshing to see people in a large city treat others kindly and with respect. We get so tired of hearing about the incredibly dumb things people do in the States. I can’t even read about or watch the news anymore. Acts of kindness seem to be diminishing here which is sad. Being in Seoul challenged us to be better stewards of who we are as Americans and as Christians. Real change starts with one person at a time.

We also became more grateful for all we do have here in America. We have so much more and need to be thankful we live in this incredible nation. Korea was incredible, but America is awesome too and it made us proud to know we are now both an American and Korean family. We were also proud of how America has helped Korea thrive and become the powerful little country it is today. If there is ever an example of what can happen in Iraq, Korea is it.

Finally, we came face to face with deep rooted stereotypes and prejudices. We can all play ignorant and say they do not exist, but they do. It was such a learning experience to be an outsider among a group of people for a few days. We stood out like sore thumbs, which is something even our own adopted Korean son might feel like one day. It helped us get a better sense of what other people even here in America might feel like if they are of a different race, handicapped or just different for some reason and not like the large majority. It presents itself in comments, looks, and the ways in which we subconsciously deal with others. Hopefully we can be an agent of change in regards to this as well.

Our trip to Seoul to get our son was certainly a highlight of our lives. We cannot wait go back, either for another child, or to just serve at Eastern. Either way, we already have a huge list of places in Seoul and other parts of Korea we are dying to see. But nothing will be as exciting as the time we get take our son back to his homeland sometime in the future. What a trip that will be!

We hope this report will help you enjoy your time in Korea and save you time as well!

God Bless,

Brady & Julie Speers