The moment you've all been waiting for...

Seoul, Korea

The Burtons have always been friends with the Price family. They shared the same neighborhood at one point. Now him and his wife are serving as Mission President in Seoul. They were kind enough to have us over for a Thanksgiving feast with all the other missionaries in the zone. She is quite amazing to put on two very large Thanksgiving feasts: one for the old missionaries who left the previous night, and one for the new ones coming in. The food was awesome!


The weather in Seoul was quite chilly. We were amazed at the traffic: rush hour every day, every hour, but the difference between Shanghai was the noise. In Seoul traffic, there was no honking, cutting inbetween, or impoliteness. And it seemed as though everyone was in business suits, women included. Pictures below are taken next to the National Palace Museum of Korea.

To the left is where the President of Korea resides. If I understood correctly, below is where the Korean princess tried to hold her ground and defend the city against the incoming fighting Japanese soldiers, but it was all in vain, she was martyred and is now remembered for her valiant courage. I couldn't tell you when this happened though...

Late one night on the streets of Seoul we witnessed a fight. Four grown men, all in business suits, one with his shirt ripped off, hanging around his waist, and others throwing mindless punches and choke holds. Hmmm, not quite as interesting as ultimate fighting in Manila, but close. At one point, the man with the missing shirt fell off the curb and those holding on to him all fell on top of him: 3 grown men, all in business suits, lying face down in the road, mad as fire! The cars creeping by, even at this late hour, all witnessed this as well. Everyone just watched. We did too.

Manila, Philippines

In a Mexican restaurant these two great singers and guitarists played us renditions from Elton John, the Eagles, and Simon and Garfunkel. My mom would have loved to hear 'Sound of Silence', a song my dad would always sing to her when she was learning English.

At this restaurant we also had an order of chinchinillo, or a half a pig...literally... the platter came out with the top half of a cooked baby pig...head, eyes, hoofs and all...and after the presentation the waiter took a small plate held sideways and chopped that head and all four appendages right off! No Mercy!

What would a trip to the Philippines be without stopping by the beach? Unfortunately we couldn't stay very long, but the weather and the water were absolutely wonderful.

Yay! The Phillipines has Cinnabun!!! As you can tell, this is T.P.'s favorite treat! Taylor's customer was able to get me into this race in Manila. There is a new found running boom here, and races are held weekly through different sponsors. My second place finish earned me a voucher for 5000 pesos ($100) to any Nike store in Manila, which was enough for lots of fun gear for T.P. and me. It was kinda fun because we HAD TO spend the entire amount or lose it, and to be honest with you, that wasn't a problem at all.