Goodbye Dangjin....Hello Yesan

Today was our last day in Dangjin and time to say good-bye to our first homestay families. The scene at the parking lot of the Dangjin Art and Cultural Center looked similar to when you get dropped off for the first time at your college dorm. Every host family, as well as Mr. Jo and our crew of Best Drivers as they called themselves, came to see us off, say farewell and wish us good health. Of course we were excited to move on to our next destination but sad to leave the first families that had shared there homes with us.

On our way to Yesan we go. It was a relatively quiet trip to Yesan. No hussle and bussle like the previous trips as we headed out in separate cars. Our intepreter is David, the son of a Rotary member from a city next to Yesan who goes to Seoul University. Did you notice I said David? Time to give Matt a break and balance the team out a little.

Before arriving to Yesan, we stopped at a small park that had been used as a dam for several years. Now it serves as a place where people can go take some long walks or go fishing. The view is spectacular; the whole area is surrounded by mountains. One of our GSE host's from Yesan told us the story that a long time ago, the mountains were used for sending out signals and they could be seen from wherever you were in Yesan. Today, they use cell phones. The rest of the Yesan host team arrived with some of their family members to accompany us to the Government offices.

The visit to Yesan's Government offices has been the most official one we have had yet. Not that the others have not been formal, but the Vice President and Planning Manager for the city, as well as, Rotary members from the district were there to welcome us, show us a video of the city and eventually take us out to lunch. There were cameras everywhere we turned our heads. If this is how fame feels, I think a month of it would be enough for me.

Have we mentioned the words adventurous, crazy, narrow and winding roads and the art of driving with one hand while holding a cell phone on the other enough in our blog? Well, hope you don't get tired of it because today was no exception. If the Team allows me, I will take an opinion license and say that today's drive to the Reservoir and the mountains has been the most scenic/panoramic drive of the trip. I know, I know...it has only been a week but wish folks could've been there to understand. My gosh, what a view of the mountains, reservoir, the city. We drove to a state park, went up a very steep mountain-one narrow road, in a luxury car, one hand, winding curve-and there we were overlooking the city from the porch of a cabin. You know what, I will not spoil it. See the pictures; they're AWESOME!!!!

If the view from the top and the description of the drive have not been enough to express how peaceful and spiritual our first day in Yesan has been, wait until we tell you about our visit to the Temple today. At the beginning of the day we were told that our day would end with dinner at a Temple. It never occured to us that we would have the opportunity to not only walk around the grounds of Yesan's biggest Temple-Sudeok-sa, but that we would be spending the rest of our afternoon sitting around talking with Abbot Ong-San (Head Monk) and other monks at the Temple. There are no words or enough words to explain what went on in the little private room they had for us. We exchanged stories, laughed, smiled, communicated through words, signs, looks and promised each other to visit if we were ever in each other's backyard in the future. The sound of the bell was our signal to join the rest of the monks at the dining hall for dinner. This was a great honor and privilige as only the monks and the people that work there are allowed to eat dining hall.

Once again, time flies when we are having fun. Time to go to meet our home stay families. As we stepped outside, we were the only ones left on the grounds of the Temple. Oh well, down the narrow road we go....Again!