We started Monday bright and early at 8:00,
a half hour before our departure time. For breakfast, my room brought down the banana milk(we volunteered to hold the snacks and drinks) and sandwiches were delivered to the hotel for everyone. The sandwiches were made by our chef for the trip, Heykung Kim, and they were delicious. Those who wanted more were also allowed to walk across the street to the nearby 7 11.
At 8:30 we headed to our first destination, Yanghwajin Foreign Missionary Cemetery.
Here we learned of the many missionaries who gave up their livelihoods in the English countries to traverse to Korea in order to spread the gospel and religion. But we learned that the missionaries weren’t accepted immediately by the Koreans. Instead, many of them integrated into the Korean culture by opening up medical practices and teaching medical knowledge. Many also integrated themselves into the Koreans’ daily lives, gaining their trust overtime, and eventually, paving the way for the development of Christianity in South Korea. We paid our respects to 3 of the missionaries, Appenzeller, Underwood, and Scranton, laying flowers at their tombstones. We were also given a tour around the Missionary Museum, which held artifacts from the missionary times along with information on the history of them in Korea.
After, we ate lunch nearby the Korea Freedom Federation
where we would be attending a welcome event soon after. At the event, we met with our sponsors and introduced ourselves and our plans to further our understanding of the culture in Korea and to see the connections to Hawaii.
gifts we received
We then headed to Lotte Tower
and went up to the observatory where we were given a beautiful panoramic view of Seoul. We spent some time in the observatory looking at the different floors and eventually headed to dinner in the mall at an all-you-can-eat buffet. It had an assortment of foods and was very delicious overall. One of the things I found interesting was green grape sorbet. When the dinner concluded, it was back to the hotel.