Big Hands 큰 손

Being my last full day, we were so busy! Everyone wants a piece of me before I go. They all want to feed me, like they have been the entire month. Seriously, everyone has been sooo generous when it comes to providing meals. It was great, because I ate some fantastic authentic Korean food. And I was able to sit and spend time with people here and really get to know them and their lifestyle.
First we stopped by the flower market - a huge green house with section after section of little plant and flower vendors. We got some pretty potted plants for our hosts today! A mini lilac and lavender, oooh they smell so good.

Then we were off to the Kahle's and we had a good old American breakfast! Mmm, waffles, eggs, sausage, couscous! Jane taught me another Korean phrase today, saying someone has a big hand means they are generous, especially when it comes to providing food.

yum

Next we drove to Paju, to have lunch with Minho's parents. It was an extremely healthy porridge with chicken, rice, garlic, ginko, ginseng, jujube, and I'm sure other earthy goodness. They are great with farming and know so much about natural ingredients. She was so sweet and gave me some tea and bean paste to take home!

맛있는

we're how close to NoKo?

Paju is so close to the Northern border, so we took this opportunity to visit the Unification Observatory nearby. It's high up on a mountain, so we took the shuttle bus. The blossoms are finished in Seoul, but they were still popping in Paju!

on the road up to the observatory

Walk up to the observation deck and you can sit in the seats and gaze across the rivers to North Korea.
The video explains a little bit of what you can see.

For example, on this visible edge of land, there are one-, three-, and five-story residence buildings that were built in the 80's. Some are lived in, others have crumbled. Basically all the activity seen around here is a little bit of farming. Very few people are seen, no vehicles, one tractor at times. Based solely on the information from that video, North Korea continues mysterious, and really primitive. They mentioned a lack of trees because much has been cut for firewood, and they don't fertilize that farmland, perhaps because of a lack of supply. The only import/export goes through China.

Every year people come here to show homage to family they were separated from when the line was drawn. People can look across, but they still don't have any contact or information. How sad.
In the rest of the building are displays and timelines showing the events leading up to this terrible situation now. And the message is they hope to be reunited someday.
It's striking to see the tall fence topped with barbed wire that line both borders. It's so brutal. I look forward to a unification someday too, but not just North and South Korea, the whole world. (Isaiah 2:4) And there certainly won't be any more fences like that!

North Korea

Also nearby is this cute section called Provence, with shops and cafes and a pretty pond.  We just stopped by to sit and relax before we jumped into traffic again. (Traffic is ridiculous here!)

And then we had to move our dinner plans to Sunday lunch, because we just can't do it all! haha
But Jane made some pumpkin soup, and I mixed up the avocado frosting. It was a perfect last meal while we both packed. Where did all this stuff come from? Shove it in ...

oh yeah