We were stamped out of Korea a few hours ago and are now on a ferry headed for Japan. But before looking forward, I’ll write a little on our last eleven days. Some things about Korea really surprised me. It was way more developed than I had anticipated. As much as the US, but everything is a lot newer. So it actually seems more developed than the US in many ways. As Anderson said earlier today, the US had new and state-of-the-art stuff twenty years ago, but now it’s old. And that really goes along with my observations while at home; things in the US seemed old, run down, and inefficient. The other major thing that really surprised me was the food. While still not my favorite, it was better than I expected. Perhaps a better indication of my taste for the food is that I have gained weight while in Korea, or perhaps that’s more of a tribute to the Muth’s hospitality and good food sense. Some things were as I expected though. I had not expected Korea to be super interesting or have anything spectacular to see- it didn’t surprise me on either account. Not that it was bad, but just kind of bland. It was an enjoyable country, but in the sense that a Western European country would be. That is, developed but with a unique culture, good food, some history, and some sights. But nothing totally different and no adventure. The best feature of our trip, though, was the people. Koreans are some of the nicest, friendliest, most helpful people we’ve met. I’d say that was the best surprise and the best thing about Korea.
Seoul was okay, Seorak-san was nice, but hanging out with the Muths in Busan was the highlight of our time in Korea. Firstly, they were so hospitable in offering their place for us to stay and then showing us a really good time every single day we were there- from good restaurants to the baseball game to bars/clubs to an awesome hike. Not only those things, but they’re fun to hang with and we had plenty of fun and good conversations the whole time we were there. I felt really blessed by our time with them in Busan. So thanks Muths, thanks Korea, and annyeonghi gyeseyo!