oh Seoul...what an Adventure!

Howdy from Seoul!

Greetings Y'all!

On our way...Seoul here we come!

I gotta tell you about last month's visa trip to Seoul, South Korea! If you follow the blog, then I'm sure by now you've got the general idea of visa trips. Every 60 days, wether I want to or not, I have to leave mainland China. There is no specific place that I have to go nor do I have to be gone a specific amount of time, all I have to do is get my passport stamped. At the end of October, there were several staff members here at SFCV, including myself, that needed to make a visa trip. Since we all had to be out of mainland China around the same time, we figured we should all just go together....and we did just that! There were 6 of us that made the trip to Seoul: Josh, Esther (Josh's sister), Caroline, Kyrra, Me and of course ILY Bear!

yes, just....YES!

cue the "Hallelujah Chorus" :D

We set out late on a Thursday morning, got to the airport and on our plan with no glitches. The 2 hour flight was peaceful and fast, when we arrived at the airport in Seoul, we made it through security, immigration, and the baggage claim all with no logistical issues. Amidst all this travel the only hold up for me was the throbbing headache that began while on the flight. Once we landed, I was in a horrible mood, honestly all I wanted was coffee, a bed and a quite place to relax. After we hit the baggage claim, we exited the terminal and headed towards the exit. While standing in line to get a "wifi egg" (portable pocket wifi! seriously, Koreans are doing it right- so perfect!) my eyes caught a ray of a light, a light I don't often see, yet it's a light I love... Could it be?!? I turned and there it was....the lights that read, "Dunkin Donuts"!!! I can't tell you, how delighted my heart was, seriously such a kindness from God! Only He could have known that I need that at that exact moment. I kid you not, I almost started crying! You see back home in the States, DD coffee is my fav! I used to stop and get a cup o' joe on my way to work every day...and there are no DD's in Beijing. :( For weeks leading up to the trip, when people would ask me what foods I miss most from back home I'd reply with "Dunkin' hazelnut coffee with cream and sugar and a chocolate sprinkles donut...that's all I want!"haha. Well, I didn't get my hazelnut coffee, but you know that I definitely got my chocolate sprinkles donut! SOOOO GOOOD!
Anyway, back to the trip. The apartment we were renting from AirBnB (which is awesome btw!) was just a block away from the subway, thus we took the subway straight to Seoul station and then walked from there. When we finally found the place, we settled in quickly. While the others went out for dinner, I stayed back to rest, spend some quite time with God and watch some Korean baseball. It felt so good to rest my head.
The next day when we awoke, we headed out for a day of touring and shopping. We hit the streets of Seoul with gusto! The more I saw, the more impressed I was with this beautiful city and country. Prior to the trip, I really had no desire to visit SK aside from it being a different part of Asia I had never visited and a stamp on the passport. But honestly, the more I saw the more I loved it! Now, lets get one things straight...if you know me well then you know that I'm very anti-Kpop, and this holds true today. Just because I now love the city of Seoul, DOESN'T mean I love Kpop! Got it? ok great....let's keep going. Again, walking around the city and shopping was very fun, there were so many people of all different ethnicity's all speaking English! It felt weird to be in a place where the majority of people speak my language, weird yet awesome! Our day of shopping went by fast and before I knew it, it was time for a street food dinner and a night touring a different part of the city. Should has such a vibrant night life, it was awesome to see all the street markets, vendors and people soaking in the moonlight.

Saturday morning came fast and Caroline and I were headed back to the airport to catch our 9am flight back to Beijing! Due to work, I only took two days for my visa trip this time, and although it was an extremely fast trip, it was still very fun! I think my favorite part of the whole trip was being able to experience Seoul and South Korea with Kyrra! Kyrra has long loved Korea and the Korean people and being able to be with her on her first trip there was incredible! Her face lite up the second we arrived! This was her element for sure! I'm so blessed to have been able to be there to see her dream finally come true! So awesome!

I will say this...Seoul is an awesome city that I will definitely be visiting again in the future! Overall we had a great time....check out these pics, they're proof! ;)