We rose early Sunday morning for breakfast before making our way down the street to Yoido Full Gospel Church, the largest Christian church in the world. The church has over 830,000 members in congregations spread out all over Seoul and beyond, but the main church building that we went to holds 26,000 people each service for seven services each Sunday. The services are held in Korean, by they offer simultaneous translation into at least nine different languages at the different services. It was definitely a new experience, especially during the singing times, where the lyrics were posted in four different languages, and everyone sang in their native tongue. And I must say, the sound of 26,000 people all singing the same song in their own language is one I won't soon forget. I personally still can't get over that number...that's the population of a small city all inside one building, all singing together!
Anyway, after the service, we headed out looking for lunch, and made our way to Itaewon (이태원), the foreigner neighbourhood. Basically, we left Korea for lunch - that's how large the foreigner population is in this part of Seoul. Lorie and Laura had a hankerin' for Indian food, so we found a restaurant that had a buffet, and got to try all kinds of different dishes. The thing that most impressed me, however, wasn't the main dishes - it was naan (Indian flatbread). It was absolutely delicious, especially when dipped in the butter chicken sauce!
After lunch, it was time to go to the place Shan was most excited for: the Bau House dog cafe. To answer the question that's already on your mind, no it's not a cafe with dog on the menu. Instead, it's a cafe that just happens to have a couple dozen dogs living there, and when you order your drinks, you get treats to feed the dogs, and you can play with them for your stay there. It's definitely not a place for everyone, as the dogs have the run of the place (the majority of the staff are solely on cleanup patrol), but if you're a dog person, it's definitely a unique experience. And the dogs were REALLY cute, too!From there, it was about time to head back to the train station, as Lorie and Laura wanted to stop at E-mart before heading back to Hong Seong. From there, it was just a hop, skip and a jump back to Daejeon and our little bunnies!
It was a fantastic weekend, and we definitely can't wait to go to Seoul again and check out some more of the sights, especially when we won't have a lot on our minds during the trip. You see, an unfortunate byproduct of the global economic crisis is that there has been a severe dropoff in enrollent at the private schools, and ours has been no exception. As a result, our hagwon is going to be closing.
Fortunately, our boss runs two hagwons, and we were offered positions there, which we accepted because we love our boss, and really enjoy working with her. The only catch is that the other school is across town, so we're going to have to move, and that's not going to be a lot of fun.
So, as we look ahead to this rather significant change in our lives, your prayers would be much appreciated.
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