Boys' High School, Train to Gyeongju and Anapchi Pond

 Tuesday, June 27

Today was another busy day!  We traveled south by high-speed train to the city of Gyeongju.  We had some delicious lunch at the train station on arrival.  Max and I were zipped off with half of the group who wanted bulgogi stew for lunch and Kurt landed in a completely different restaurant with the other half of the group who wanted a Japanese-style pork cutlet and noodles for lunch.  

Next we traveled to a local boys' high school for a few hours of entertainment.  A class of about 25 students had planned a program and some treats for us.  They were juniors in high school, but here they are called "second graders" because there are only three grades in high school.  (The first graders are sophomores and the third graders are seniors.).  Sean and Max were team captains for a game of charades. This gave the high school boys a great chance to practice their english and we got to laugh as Max and Sean tried to act out words like 'giraffe' and 'marathon' for the teams to guess.  In Korea, students attend school from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm.  Getting into college is very competitive!  So, being able to host our group was a fun break for them (although there were a few quieter boys in the back studying their text books).  We ended the event by sharing a gift of some American hats, t-shirts, and candies with the students.

From there we stopped in a local shopping area where we could try on hanbok (traditional Korean dress) and get our photos taken.  One of the local shop owners got a laugh out of a few of the guys (Kurt included) because the Hanbok store hadn't bothered to give them Korean pants to put on over their shorts so they looked like they were walking the streets of Korea without any pants on.  

Dinner tonight was amazing!  We were brought to a restaurant that had pots built into each table.  They made a dish called, dak galbi, which consisted of chicken, cabbage, sweet potatoes, green onions, and rice cakes in a delicious sauce.  We watched as they made the stir fry style dish before our eyes.  It was served with lettuce leaves and sesame leaves so you could eat it like a wrap.  They also served an ice cold soup that was like a pickled kimchi broth.  It was perfect for the hot day and made my tummy happy!

After checking into our new hotel for the night, we took an optional trip to a place called Anapchi pond (also called Wolji pond).  It was a gorgeous lantern lit landscape that despite the small crowds of people felt so peaceful.  Max and Kurt stayed with the tour guide while I wandered more slowly and took some photos... that may have been why it felt so peaceful.  

Dede

Agency Visit Day, Shopping at InsaDong, Cooking Class, Karoke

 June 26th

Today we visited the agency where I was from and reviewed my file!  It was kind of emotional but meaningful because I learned a lot.  I also met my social worker who was really nice and said I was and still am handsome, lovely, and energetic!

Love, Max

Sorry for the delayed posting.  The past two days have been jammed back with activities.  Monday, was out last day in Seoul before we checked out of our hotel in Seoul and started our nomadic journey to the southern tip on the peninsula.

Monday started with a visit to the agency that helped with Max's adoption and is the place where Dede and I stayed during our last visit to Korea.  The agency has changed a bit since our last visit.  The guest house and baby floor is no longer open.  The babies waiting for adoption are now located in other locations across Korea.  The building now houses services provided by Eastern Social Welfare Society in addition to their pre and post-adoption services.   We met with the President of Eastern, some of the social workers and walked around to see some of the familiar areas of the building.  Hard to believe that was just ~12 years ago.

After visiting Eastern we had some time for some much needed shopping.  We visited the very familiar shopping area of Insadong.  Its a quaint little shopping street with many local artist shops mixed in with the typical tourist shops.  

After about an hour of shopping all forty of us took a cooking class and made our own supper. We made beef bulgogi.  It was delicious!  It is good to know Max and Dede know how to make it now; maybe I'll get a night off from cooking when we get home.  😀

The day finally wrapped up with the adoptees going out for a night of Karoke (noraebang in Korean) and the rest of us going out for beer, soju and soju-itos (mojitos made with Soju instead of rum is awesome)!

-Kurt

An attempt to recreate our first family photo.

The chair that he sat on in some of the first pictures we received.

President of Eastern

Reenactment of a past photo.  Max's legs are a little longer this time.

Us with another family from MN that was also in Korea to get their son 12 years ago.

Insadong

Insadong

Beef Bulgogi - Steak, carrots, mushrooms, onions and rice cakes

Soju-ito Time!

De-Militarized Zone and First Mother Meeting

June 25th,

Another hot day! Today we went and saw the De-Militarized Zone (a.k.a DMZ). At first we were going to just go through a tunnel but then our plans changed and we ended up taking a Gondola Lift up the mountain and then going through the tunnels. The Gondola Lift was kind of boring and we were just up there for a little bit but my favorite part was after that where we got to go to an observatory and look through binoculars into North Korea. After that we went to the tunnel and it was a very deep descent. It was a really long walk as well but at the bottom it finally leveled out and we walked down there for about 20 minutes. It was a really low ceiling and was technically like a cave that they hollowed out and we had to wear helmets down there just in case we bonked our heads on the low ceiling. After that we finally came up and I got a cool fan in the gift shop. Then we went back to Seoul and listened to the story of a birth mother who had to give her son up for adoption to try to help us adoptees, as well as parents of adoptees, realize what our birth mom's had to go through. It was really emotional and a bunch of people were crying which was kind of uncomfortable but it was really helpful for us at the same time. To wrap it all up we had a very fun but emotional sort of roller coster day!

-Max

Breakfast of champions!  Max was happy to see bulgogi, kimchi, and plenty of rice on the buffet today!

Imjingak Peace Gandola ride across a river and rice fields.  About 3 miles from the border.

We are in the Civilian Control Zone - limited and controlled civilians in this area.

We needed to show our passports to get in this area.

DMZ - no dropping bombs, please.

Not sure what this means.  But, a little unsettling!

Careful there are many land mines in this area!

There is a North Korean manned military post on this hill.  Between the two highest trees.

View of North Korea.

View of North Korea

This is our travel group.  The only picture allowed in the tunnel area.

The tunnels were built by N. Korea and discovered by S. Korea in the early 70s.

Suwon Folk Village, Hwasung Fortress and Soccer game

 Saturday, June 24th

Today's journeys took us about an hours drive south of Seoul to the city of Suwon.  At Suwon we first visited a Folk Village.  The tour leaders had us split up into groups.  Max did a scavenger hunt with five other boys his age.  Mr. Kim, our full time tour guide, taught the grownups about the Joseon Dynasty folk village (1392 - 1897) which was created by relocating and restoring about 270 real houses from each province.

After the visit to the Folk village we had Bibimbap at a local restaurant.  This is one of our favorite Korean dishes and this place did not disappoint!

After lunch we headed to the Hwasung Fortress where Max and others got to try archery.  Let's just say the group as a whole needs to keep practicing.  

After archery we and a portion of the tour group went to a soccer game where the local Suwon team took on the team from Seoul.  The fans from both teams were really entertaining and it was a close game.  Seoul scored late in the game to seal the victory.

Weather report:  Today was hot and sunny with temperatures reaching the 90s.  There was a lot of sweating going on!

The time zone change hasn't been too bad, but Max was really TIRED after the soccer game and slept in the back of the bus during the hour long bus ride back to Seoul.

Here are some pictures from the day...

-Kurt

First Impressions

 June 23 2023

Hello Family, my first impressions of Korea are that first of all, it is very crowded in the streets with the food carts and some of it is really good food. Second the streets are really full and there are actually a lot of American cars out driving not just Korean brands. Other than that though it is just like the US. Just taller buildings and more crowded areas. I like it a lot!

Love, 
Max

Travel Day!

Thursday, June 22nd, 2023

1:30 Minnesota Time: 

Hello Family!

    I hope you are doing well. As you know we are traveling to Korea today. In my opinion, I feel like the flight will be pretty long and pretty boring but it will be all worth it because I'll be connecting more with my identity. Today won't be very exciting, it will just be traveling. I am excited and also nervous but I hope I can work through it and have a great time with my family. I am most looking forward to the food though but just the magnitude of being able to see where I was born and partially raised is a cool feeling as well!

Love,

Max and Family

We made it!

Friday, June 23, 2023

We finally got to bed at what would have been around 7 am on Friday morning in MN after a long day of travel.  It was around 9 pm on Friday evening in Seoul.  We got to our hotel at about 6:30 pm.  Our hotel is in a fun, happening, downtown area.  It is full of shopping and the streets are closed to traffic and full of food carts.  We made a dinner out of street foods (while you were all eating breakfast).  We had skewers of bbq pork, kimpap (which is like a California roll... sushi, without the raw element), and japchae (which is a stir fry of a rice/sweet potato noodle with vegetables.  Then we all went to bed and slept well.  

We are heading off to breakfast and then our first, very full day of our itinerary. 

Fast Forward 12 years - Headed Back to Korea

 Hello, Family:

As you may know, we are going to be traveling to South Korea in about a week and half to help me figure out my identity.  We will be gone from the 22nd to the 7th (approximately 2 weeks).  

Love, 

Max

P.S. I added photos of Dad's maps of South Korea and the island where I was born called Jeju (jeh-joo).