We left the hotel at about 9 on Saturday to the Chungdong First Methodist Church. After, we walked to the Appenzeller Memorial Museum where we were given a tour and learned more about the history of Appenzeller as well as the foreign missionary mission in Korea. They also gave us their signature cream-filled bagels as we left which were spectacular.
We then took the bus to the Ihwajang house,
one of Syngman Rhee’s houses to meet with his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Heyja Cho, She told us how President Syngman Rhee had a special love for children and a funny anecdote about how the First Lady, Francesca, screamed that her mouth was on fire the first time she ate gochujang. Mrs. Cho Hye-ja specially provided fruit and snacks for us, which made us feel very grateful as well as lunch at a nearby Italian restaurant after we sat down and talked for a while.
We then met our group guides who would take us around to places for our free day. They were part of PhD. Cho’s group, Gyeonmidan, who would be traveling to Hawaii on a later trip. Most of them were in their early-to-mid twenties. We split into groups and were free to go anywhere we would like. My group went to Gwangjang and Myeongdong market to shop and eat food. We spent hours walking around the bustling street markets and even got caricatures of ourselves done. For dinner we had Korean Bbq, from which we headed to a bus tour of the city. With the sunset and peaceful environment, it was an enjoyous, calm ride. We ended the night with Bingsu, where I learned they add CHEESE to the delicious milk dessert. As preposterous as it sounded at first, it was a life-changing moment for me. The texture was perfect and it added just a small change in taste, a good change though. After thanking our guides, we went back to the hotel and packed our bags to leave the coming day.
