May 11 Home again, home again!

I celebrate my 61st birthday today by leaving Daejeon, boarding an airplane, and returning home. Seeing Patti again at SeaTac Airport will be the best birthday present ever. (Yes, it is my birthday at 6 pm when my plane takes off from Seoul, and still my birthday the next afternoon when my plane lands in Seattle, courtesy of the International Date Line. This year, my birthday lasts for, oh, I don’t know, something like 40 hours.)

Although I can’t wait to be home, there are many, many things I will miss about Korea. Here are the top 10:

10. Walking to work, to stores and to restaurants in my very active neighborhood

9. Unfailing politeness
8. The public baths
7. The lights at night

6. The Buddhist temples, especially on quiet days with no crowds

5. The subway

4. The singing and chanting at Hanwha Eagles baseball games

3. The running path along the river

2. Some, but not all, Korean food: bibimbap, pajan, takboki

1. Koreans

So that’s it for my trip and for my blog. Thanks for following along. It was fun for me to keep track of all the things I saw and did. I hope you got a kick out of it too, and that you’ll have your own opportunity to visit Korea someday. It’s quite a place!