day 71

Sunday marked my 68th day in Korea and my 33rd birthday. It was a pretty low-key day but I was perfectly content to spend it that way.

After attending church in the morning, where we watched parts of General Conference from a video tape sent to me by a friend, I went to lunch at Mr. Sao's (pronounced 'saw') house with Carly. He's the man at CHB bank where we have our accounts that's been so helpful since we set up the accounts two months ago. He speaks enough English to communicate with us and a few weeks ago he said he's like to have us over for dinner. The date we set just happened to fall on my birthday. We met and ate with his gracious wife and two young children. Before dinner they presented me with a birthday cake and candles and sang "Happy Birthday" to me in English. Dinner was kimbop, bulgogi (delicious meat), and cold jap-chae.

After lunch, I spent the rest of the night at home and called Mom to wish her a happy Mother's Day before I went to bed. They were on their way to church so we only spoke for a little while. I called again Monday morning and talked to Grandma Anderson who was visiting for dinner and also Julia, Hailey, and Amelia.

The day before my birthday I went to Seoul again and spent the day with Tammy. We went to the shopping district of Dongdaemun again and then on the lunch at TGI Fridays where I treated myself to fajitas for 22,000 won! (about $16.50) Afterwards we went to see the Seoul Temple. It was beautiful but so hidden, in spite of being on a hill, amidst all the confusion of office buildings, apartments, and industrial growth. I'd hoped to stock up on garments since I'd heard they stocked American sizes (yes, they acutally make different sizes for the smaller-than-average Koreans) but the selection was so limited I didn't buy anything. Later that night Tammy was unable to escort me back to the Cheongyangni train via the subway so I had to brave it on my own and, in spite of my treapidations, I made it, on time, and didn't miss my train.