Day 3 Seoul

Tomorrow we will leave Korea in the morning and fly to Shenyang, the city where Gage lives! He was initially in the orphanage in Dalian, but relocated to the orphan boarding school in Shenyang about 3 years ago which is typical for kids in the Liaoning province. It will be an amazing feeling to fly into Shenyang tomorrow knowing Gage is there. I don't think any of us will sleep much tomorrow night as we anticipate welcoming him into our family.

We feel sad to be leaving Korea tomorrow as it has been such an incredible experience for all of us to live a few days in Jake's homeland. It is a beautiful country with fascinating people. We will always treasure the memories of these days and hope that we will be able to return someday.

Today was mainly a shopping day as Jake wanted to have a few clothing items from Korea to take home. As I mentioned before, the people here are very stylish which gives an added pleasure to people watching. We went back to two of the huge markets, Dongdaemun and Namdaemun. The open air market at Namdaemun is enormous with about 10,000 shops, many of which are small stalls. The shops are punctuated now and then by stalls cooking all kinds of things in the open air. It was not unusual to come across a huge pile of green onions between shops with people sitting on the ground peeling and chopping. We had lunch in a garden on top of the Shinsegai department store. There were numbered displays of food items which you could look over and then select. The food was great and it was a perfect day to sit outside. It has been pretty hot here, but today is overcast so it is much more comfortable.

We are going to take it easy this evening with the guys going to the driving range in the hotel and Barb doing some laps in the pool before dinner. We have to get up really early since we need to be on the airport shuttle busy at 5:45 AM as we depart for Incheon Airport.

Thanks to all of you who have posted comments on the blog. It is wonderful to hear from you and to feel that connection with home. When we write tomorrow we'll be in China and just a day away from meeting Gage.