Our first stop was at the Gunpo Youth Center. After listening to a short presentation about the center, the students all received a gift.
One of the purposes of the Youth Center is to counsel young people about all sorts of things, including pregnancy prevention.

Part of our tour included learning the traditional tea ceremony. Here, our teacher is showing us how to make a traditional cookie to eat with our tea.


The finished cookies. They are made with different types of grain put together with honey. They tasted a bit like honey nut cheerios.

Our group photo in front of the Youth Center.
Our next stop was the Gunpo City Library. We all sat down when we got there for a photo. We each received our very own library card.
One nice feature of the library is this phone booth. It's purpose is for patrons to be able to use their cell phones in a quiet place.
Daniel receiving his library card.
Our group in front of the library.
Lunch today was a pork cutlet, salad, and rice.


During lunch, Melissa was teaching some of the girls her wrestling cheers. Very cute!
Next, we went to the Nongshim noodle factory. We got to wear hair nets and white coats for our tour.
Our group in front of the Nongshim noodle factory. They gave us a really nice box full of noodles and snacks.
The Gunpo fire department put on quite a show for us. After their initial presentation, they demonstrated some of their training drills. Our gift here was a great orange fire department hat.




We ended the day meeting with Mayor Ro. Our county presented Gunpo with a gift of wine available in limited quantities.
Mayor Ro presented me with this lovely picture.
Shawn and Mitchell received ties with Korean warriors on them.


The students had the opportunity to have their photo taken with the mayor if they chose.

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are at the tail end of our two days off with our host families. Shawn and I saw a bunch of the kids at the shopping mall in Anyang and they were headed to go see Harry Potter. They looked great and seemed to be having a ball. They said that a couple of the kids had other plans and weren't with them, but I haven't heard that there have been any problems. So, no news is good news!!

Tomorrow we meet with Mayor Ro, visit the Youth Center, Library, Nongshim factory, and the Fire Department. Lots going on and I'll post pictures when we get back in.

Mud Festival

A view of our bus that we take on all of our trips. Usually lots of laughing and talking going on.
Covered in mud, the kids had a great time playing at the beach.

Kayci on the mud slide.
I'm not sure who this is, but they're having fun!
Melissa and her friend, COVERED in mud.
Caleb trying out the local junk food. A corndog with ketchup AND sprinkled with sugar. Mmmm.

A yummy dinner of bulgogi with vegetables.
After bringing over 30 kids to Korea, I finally had one get sick. Zoe just had a minor infection and was treated at the hospital. Quite different from ours, so I guess it was just another cultural experience. Zoe is doing just fine.
We had a crazy rain/thunder/lightning storm. The urban flooding was unbelievable. I'm thankful that we had finished our activities for the day when the storm hit. See the video below.

We Have Arrived!

We all made it in one piece. The kids did an outstanding job through the airports and on the planes. Lots of new and different forms to fill out now that we have H1N1 floating around. We had to have a health screening when we landed in Incheon. Thankfully we all checked out ok. Apparently lots of cities in Korea have cancelled their exchanges for this summer because of the flu scare. I'm thankful we are able to keep ours going!

Ready to go!

We had a great meeting tonight with lots of discussion and questions. The kids and chaperones are ready to go! We leave Wednesday from Seatac and arrive Thursday in South Korea.

T-Shirt Design

Our t-shirt design is here! Thank-you Courtney and Josselyn for putting it together for us. We will look sharp in airports all over the world in our new shirts!!