We are day 4 Korea. It is a Sunday. We made plans to go to Sung Eun's church. It is an English speaking church. Sung Eun told us her pastor was funny and that we'd love him. Sung Eun does special work with the North Koreans. She's an amazing 23 year old that God is using. You can read about her story on my mom's blog here. My mom, Gina, and Mistie ate breakfast at the hotel. Sung Eun met us at our hotel at 9:20 a.m. We took the subway to her church.
There were probably just over 70 people there. Their choir was great. Her pastor was funny and passionate. It was really awesome to be in Korea and go to an English speaking church to praise our God. One thing I thought was funny was the seating. It was a packed room, so this might have been the reason, but all the rows were very close together. I am not sure if they were very close together (like airplane seat close) because there's a limited amount of space or because the Asians don't need a lot of leg room. This didn't seem to bother anyone.
Sung Eun had to stay for several more hours at church. She was attending the Korean speaking service and then a bible study. She is only 23, but is accomplishing a lot for God's Kingdom. It's inspiring.
After church, Daniel met us. We were going to head to Insadon (another marketplace), but we got sidetracked by a bookstore called Kyobo. This was not any bookstore. This was a compilation of Barnes & Noble, Border, and Half-Priced Books. It was huge! Of course, we wouldn't be able to read 90% of the books in the store because they were in Korean. There was a "foreign" section that had books in English. There were so many. The downstairs had a great children's section. They also had a stationary section that had a lot of neat gifts. We spent at least an hour and half there. I think we all purchased gifts. Poor Daniel, he would run from person to person checking on us. He would ask prices of items. He would make sure no one was lost. He would make sure we saw something he thought we would enjoy. I'm sure it was like herding cats.
We finally finished in Kyobo, and headed toward Insadon. We were going to meet up with Daniel's friend, Tina and eat lunch. Since we took so long in Kyobo, it was getting close to 2 p.m. We took the subway. When we got off the subway, we had to wait a bit for Tina. As we were waiting, we started people watching. We noticed this area had a lot more older people. Our hotel was right by Hongik University so there were a lot of younger, college-age people. We were away from the university so the average age went up about 30 years at least. We noticed a lot older men. We noticed a lot of them wearing the same type of jacket and vests (like a fisherman's vest). We also noticed something else. Well, we noticed the older gentlemen noticing something. As they passed by, they were staring at my sister, Mistie (aka: the bright one). This was not a casual glance as you walk by then look away. This was a "see her coming, stare at her, go by her, and turn around and crane your neck at her to continue to stare at her with no smile on your face" kind of stare. It actually started to get a little uncomfortable for her. It was strange. They didn't stare at my mom, me or Gina like that.
We finally met up with Tina. They wanted to take us to a hamburger place. I have to admit, while we were walking around looking for this hamburger place, I wasn't sure they were sure they knew where it was. It was getting onto 2:30 p.m. now and the "foreigners" were getting hungry. Tina asked, "Would you like to go the palace down here then grab some lunch?" "No!!! It's almost 3 p.m., we need some food!" Tina immediately found a small little bbq place for us to eat. She saw a restaurant, and ran inside to see if they were open. Many places weren't open because it was Sunday, but we heard her yell from upstairs that it was open.
There was only one other person and her little baby in the restaurant. Tina and Daniel ordered food for us. Bbq pork and beef with all the sides. When I write "bbq" there's not bbq sauce involved. It just means we cooked the meat on a little grill inset into the table. They brought steamed rice and sides. There was a bean sprout soup that Tina informed us was good for hangovers. Okay. Good to know. There were some kind of little pink fish things. Didn't try those. There was also garlic, some green vegetable (that was good for women, but Tina didn't know why), a brown leafy vegetable which I didn't try either, kimchi, an egg omelet, a red, hot sauce, and lettuce leaves. They brought out two different kinds of pork (steamed and bbq) and one beef. You were supposed to take a bite of meat, rice, any veggie, top it with the hot sauce, put it into a leaf of lettuce, and eat it all in one bit. Everything is in bite size so you can do this, but it's still a pretty big bite.
This little girl who was in the restaurant was very cute
and kept us pretty entertained. At the end of the mother's meal, she
stopped by our table and apologized for her daughter making a mess and
noise. I was surprised because I didn't think she was a problem. I
enjoyed watching her.
Gina, Tina, me, Mistie, and my mom (they make the peace sign for "happiness - in every picture - the young and old do it)
After lunch, we headed to the Insadon marketplace. When we first started shopping, it started to sprinkle just a little. The umbrellas just popped up out of nowhere it seemed.
Then randomly, the Madagascar lion and penguins came running down the street. Don't know where they were going and I never saw them again.
I was on the hunt for a samurai sword for my son. This was one of the main items I was looking for. This marketplace was a little more open. We split up into two groups: Daniel, my mom and Gina (they shop a little slower) and Tina, Mistie and me. Sung Eun met us while we shopped. A little after we started shopping, I saw a little boy carrying a wooden samurai sword. I asked Sung Eun to go ask the boy where he purchased the sword. She came back and said, "He said there was one more left. It was at a shop owned by a grandma." So this is what we began to look for. Mistie and Tina stopped in a little shop equivalent to Claire's. Sung Eun tried to help me hunt down the sword. We finally found a black wooden sword for only $6. It wasn't a real one like I was originally searching for, but I realized it was probably the best I was going to find. I also found a Korean flag in the last store I went into. Now my son's tae kwon do room is complete!
When we were finished shopping we got into two taxis to head back to the hotel. We noticed across the street a lot of hanging lanterns. The next day, Monday, was a holiday celebrating Buddah's birthday. The hanging lanterns were in honor of him.
Sung Eun, Mistie and I were in one taxi. As we were pulling up near our hotel, Sung Eun pulled out her money to pay the driver. Mistie said, "I think she needs another 500." I started to get a 5000 won out of my wallet to give to her, but my sister said, "No she only needs a 500." Oh, 1,000 won = $1 U.S. The 500 is a coin and is equal to .50. Since she didn't need $5 but only .50, I was trying to stuff my money back into my wallet and get out of the cab. I had my wallet out, my purse hanging off my shoulder and my backpack in my hands. I got out of the cab, and walked onto the sidewalk by a brick building to put my wallet back in my purse and put my backpack on. We had to walk around the corner to get to our hotel. I got all situated and we walked back to the hotel to wait for the second taxi carrying everyone else.
They arrived about five minutes later. As usual, everyone escorted us back to our hotel. We took a couple of minutes to say good-bye to everyone. I waved bye and tried to get my wallet out of my purse to get the hotel key. My wallet was gone! This was not a wallet I could have just not been feeling in my purse. It was a large rectangular wallet I purchased for this trip specifically so I could carry my passport in it. I immediately started to stress. I sat down on the steps inside the hotel and started to go through my purse, backpack and shopping bag. Nothing. I asked my mom to go upstairs and ask Mistie if my wallet was in her shopping bags (I had been holding one of her bags at some point). Nothing. Starting to get that very sick feeling in my stomach. Sung Eun was still around and she immediately left to go out and walk around to where we had gotten out of the cab to check for the wallet. Nothing.
I went through my bags again. Nothing. Mistie said I probably needed to go by the local police station and file a report. I'm crying by now. My wallet was gone. It had my license, an expired credit card (thank God for little things that turn into blessings), my health insurance card, $300 U.S, and 200,000 won ($200) and the dreaded passport. Uggggg!!!
Sung Eun just kind of snapped into "let's get this done mode!", while I just stumbled after her. She and I had both gone and looked along the path I took to the hotel again. She said, "Let's go by the businesses." We went by the Fed Ex, 7-11, Tom N Tom, the restaurant that sold ox-bone soup, and another coffee shop around the corner. I just stood there looking like an idiot while Sung Eun talked with everyone in Korean explaining the situation. She told them what my wallet looked like, that we only wanted to the passport, and she gave them her personal cell phone number so they could contact her in case someone turned it in. We looked in trashcans to see if someone just took the cash and dumped it. Nothing.
After we went to the businesses, Sung Eun googled the nearest police department. She put it in her GPS and off we went. It started to sprinkle, so Sung Eun said, "We need an umbrella first!" She popped into a store, purchased an umbrella and away we went. We walked for about 15 minutes and finally found the police station tucked into a block filled with shops. We went in and Sung Eun explained the situation. There were a lot of words exchanged, but I understood all the sorry looks and "OHs!" I was getting. They had me write down what my wallet looked like and what was in the wallet. In English. As if they would be able to read it. Interesting. I didn't fill out any form. However, they were very nice and called the embassy for me. The embassy was closed but they gave us the phone number and Sung Eun left hers in case someone turned in my wallet. Of course after they said no one had turned it yet, I started to cry again. I'm trying not to look like a blubbering foreigner who lost her wallet, but it was not use. All the while, Sung Eun is staying positive and saying, "It will be okay. You will be back in United States. I just know it! It will be okay." I was so blessed to have her with me. Her no nonsense, get it done attitude was just what I needed. She was encouraging and was doing everything she could to help me. So glad God knew just what I needed when I needed it.
Of course, my mom said, "Treasure, I'm not leaving Korea until you do, even it takes a couple of weeks." Mistie immediately lent me 109,000 won to use as I needed. Gina was very encouraging when I got back to the hotel. Gina speaks what knows and she spoke it that night. It will be okay. It will all work out. So thankful for all these women in my life at that very moment even if I don't convey it at that time. Not only the women though. When we went downstairs to use the computer, we saw Daniel had come back to the hotel. Sung Eun had called him and he came back to check on us. He helped us find out if the Fed Ex next door was open so the officer could send some papers for me to get a new passport if we needed too. He also helped us write down the embassy address in Korean for the cab driver for whenever we went. See blessed, I tell you.
After all that was over and the realization that I probably wasn't getting that wallet back, we got hungry. Mistie ordered a Papa John's large 1/2 cheese, 1/2 sausage pizza. It was $18!!!!! No coupons!!!! Oh My!!!! It was good tough. I came in a box with a ribbon tied around it. It also came with sweet pickles as a side.
The loss of the passport immediately changed our plans. We had to plan to stay in Seoul at least a couple more days. Since the next day was a holiday, we couldn't get into the embassy or even call them until Tuesday. My mom had to cancel train tickets and hotel reservations. Mistie helped mom do this. No one complained about everything having to change because of me. There was nothing I could do until at least Tuesday, so I just had to tell myself to not worry about it until then. Well, I had to worry a little because I had to tell the officer. It was 7 p.m. on Sunday night in Korea, but 5 a.m. on Sunday morning. I opted to not call him then to tell him. :) Of course, we immediately had people praying for us. In the end, it would all work out. I went to bed around 8:30 p.m. My mom woke up in the middle of the night to read. I would have to wake up early to chat with the officer on Facebook in the morning.
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