Special Saturday

In the morning I went to the continental breakfast and sat with some of my soccer friends and also met some new faces. Korean breakfasts always make me laugh--there were tomatoes, corn with chickpea and kidney bean salad, kimchi and salad along with bacon, sausage, eggs and potatoes. It's such a funny mix, I don't think I'll ever get over it.

After breakfast I went to the documentary session. The first one I saw was about the Korean War, some perspectives from some Koreans who lived in Northern Korea and moved southward during the war and some that were located in the southern part. It was interesting and sad. The next one was called "Going Home" and was a documentary following an adoptee's journey to finding his birth family. That was also very moving. I took a lunch break and met with Tommy and a few of his friends. We went for tofu stew; mine had mandu (dumplings) in it, so I ate all of the dumplings and a little bit of the tofu. We returned from lunch in time for me to make it to the next film I wanted to see--an adoptee from Denmark has been living in an unwed mother's home on Jeju Island and was screening her trailer and a few clips she had. It was an interesting perspective into the parents' idea of what needed to be done with the baby of their child. There was a special screening of a trailer of a documentary in progress; there are twins-one was adopted to France and the other to the US and they found each other because the American is singing and put her stuff on youtube and the twin in France's friend saw the American and said, "she looks just like you!". So they connected and found out they were born in the same city on the same day...and realized they were twins. Pretty cool story.

I took off to get ready for the big Gala dinner! The only problem I had was that it was quite painful to shove my bruised big toe into my shoes, but it wasn't too bad. Well, I made it down to the lobby and got on a bus to the Seoul Grand Hyatt where the dinner was being held. I had another American sit next to me, turns out she's from Chicago and her name is Aimee! We chatted on our way there. When we arrived, I saw my friend Colin again. We took our picture next to the giant IKAA ice sculpture. He asked me to sit next to him at the dinner and we found a table nice and close to the stage. We had a couple from Germany join us, and then an American from Philly that lives in the Netherlands and a couple from Arkansas. I enjoyed talking to the woman from Arkansas; she was very friendly and gave me some resources for teaching English. The food was really nice. First we had a nicoise salad with tuna. Then we had a mushroom soup. Next came the main course, steak with mashed potatoes and green beans. Finally, there was lemon cheesecake with a mango sauce.

When dinner was over, we had some performances. First there was a a B-Boy performance (break dancing) which was pretty amazing. Then came a girls KPOP band, After School (they are quite popular so it was a big deal they were there!). Then there were some traditional fan dancing and finally a drumming performance.

After dinner, the group was going to a "bar" near the hotel. I went for a little just to be social, and did end up enjoying myself meeting some new people. Though it does get a little bit...repetitive telling your story over and over to everyone you meet.

More photos to follow, but here's one I stole from my friend Allen. He and I met in 2009 when I came with GOAL.

Allen and me at the Gala Dinner

Colin and me with the ice sculpture

The Italians! Soo Bok and Stefano

Tuna Salad

Steak

Lemon Cheesecake

KPOP band After School

Traditional fan dancing