The Last Day

It's here. The end of the final day in South Korea. As someone pointed out to me earlier, this blog should really be titled "Let's see how much we can cram into one day;" however, I'd used that for the last post. It seemed that those in charge of our schedule really wanted to make sure that we got as much bang for our bucks as we could! We started the morning with our final performance of the tour at International Lutheran Church. The chapel was not meant to fit many people, but the space itself was incredible. It gave our choir a very live sound, which was a great way to give our choir the motivation to keep singing even though it was 8:30 in the morning and we had an hours worth of music to get through.  The congregation was mostly white, and the service was all in English. In the life of THE church and in the life of this church it was both Pentecost and communion Sunday, so it was a really powerful service to be a part of. Those who were there to support us were appreciative and very responsive to the meaning of the music and the sound that we were producing.  The whole time felt like a true praise to God. We all left the church with spirits lifted and smiles all over.

After the service, we went to an art gallery in Insadong.  The exhibition halls were set up in nobleman's houses from the ancient villages in the area.  The gallery was interesting and full of things from paintings to photography to jewelry. We walked from there to lunch where most of us had a dish that SOUNDS like bip-n-bop. I know that's not what it's called, but that's what it sounds like. Its a mixture of rice, veggies, meat, and chili sauce which is the equivalent of a midwestern "hot dish" or southern "casserole." We spent a little time shopping after lunch before heading to another nobleman village at the top of a hill (I wish that I had counted how many places we had to walk UP to get to. My quads feel GREAT.)

The village was very pretty, but it was a little bit awkward because people still LIVE in the houses... we then went to ANOTHER village, that was more like a park. We took a picture in front of an entrance to one of the houses in our robes. Many Koreans there stopped to take pictures of us. The choir members were 90% sure that we were going to be singing in front of this building -Anyone who knows David Mennicke should not be surprised. We didn't though. There was another performance going on in close proximity and we refrained from making conflicting noise. There wasn't much to do in the village, but one of the cool attractions was a time capsule that Seoul buried in 1994 on the 600th anniversary of the cities existence. They will open it 400 years after the burial when  the city celebrates it's 1000th year. We stayed to watch a taekwando concert which was absolutely incredible. It was absolutely amazing to see what these teens and young adults were able to do with their bodies. They leaped, kicked, punched, and broke more boards than I was able to count.

After the show we went to the North Seoul Tower and Teddy Bear Museum. Half of us went through the museum which depicted the history of Korea using teddy bears! Then we went up onto the observation deck and looked out over the entire city and the Han river. The city was beautiful, and the weather was cloudy, yet clear over the buildings, so we had a great view of miles and miles of the city. After the tower, we went to our last Korean dinner. We ate "traditional style" on the floor and enjoyed the company of our tour guides and fellow choir members one more time.  We had barbecue and soup while we did the "Grand Quack" (which was Pastor Riemer for his woman's bathroom trip) and also our thank-yous for the Riemers and four Lara. We ended with singing E'en So and copious amounts of tears -for the seniors, for the end of the trip, for the blessing of the choir, for the love of God. It was a perfect end to an amazing trip.

Tomorrow we will fly home.  The majority of the choir will be leaving bright and early tomorrow morning, but I will be leaving separately with Sarah and Carrie so that we can go straight to Michigan/Virginia.  Thank you so much for your prayers and support! I will blog at least twice more -once on our homestay, and also a reflection once I've settled back in to the states, so please continue to stay updated, and also keep the graduated seniors, members of the choir who are moving on next year and will not be able to be in Christus, and also the returning members as well as directors and guides in your thoughts and prayers.