In Incheon, Again
Just two weeks after we were last here, we find ourselves again in the capital region. A rather urgent immigration matter calls us to the US Embassy in Seoul. It's been about 18 months since I last set foot on sovereign American territory, and it will feel good to walk past that Marine Guard, especially if there is an anti-American protest going on outside, as there often is.
It took six hours to drive from Pohang to Incheon, which is about as far as one can drive in the Republic of Korea, which is about the size of the State of Illinois. The country is effectively an island, cut off as it is on the north by the De-Militarized Zone. A distance of six hours is quite long to a South Korean, but nothing to those of used used to much longer distances.
I managed to drive the whole way with only once consulting my map, not a small feat as those familiar with the Korean highway system will agree. There is no problem with the roads themselves, which would make any civil engineer proud. The problem is in the signage, which is not geared toward the spatially-minded. Roads are marked not by direction, but by landmarks. This offers no problem when driving between major cities or in familar territory, but when you like to take short cuts as I do, and North, South, East, and West are not marked, it makes for quite a challenge.
We are staying at the home of my sister-in-law, in the ultra-modern and rigidly-planned New Airport Town Square, which, despite all my anarcho-traditionalist leanings, is one of my favorite places in Korea. It's clean and efficient.
These are trying times for the Snyders, yet full of countless blessings. My kids have been spending far too much time in our car, but once they were asleep, my wife joined me in the front seat. (Korean mothers sit in the back seat, which acts as an insurance policy that one parent should survive an accident.) It was the first time in a long while that I had a chance to talk at length with the beautiful woman to whom I am an unworthy husband.
If things go as planned, we will be spending the month of August in St. Loius, Missouri, which I've heard is quite a Catholic city. After that, we might be separated for several months, with me returning to my wife's country and her staying with the kids in mine, getting care for our daughter that is not available here in Korea.
Your prayers have been felt and are appreciated.
Blogging might be light for a few days.
Just two weeks after we were last here, we find ourselves again in the capital region. A rather urgent immigration matter calls us to the US Embassy in Seoul. It's been about 18 months since I last set foot on sovereign American territory, and it will feel good to walk past that Marine Guard, especially if there is an anti-American protest going on outside, as there often is.
It took six hours to drive from Pohang to Incheon, which is about as far as one can drive in the Republic of Korea, which is about the size of the State of Illinois. The country is effectively an island, cut off as it is on the north by the De-Militarized Zone. A distance of six hours is quite long to a South Korean, but nothing to those of used used to much longer distances.
I managed to drive the whole way with only once consulting my map, not a small feat as those familiar with the Korean highway system will agree. There is no problem with the roads themselves, which would make any civil engineer proud. The problem is in the signage, which is not geared toward the spatially-minded. Roads are marked not by direction, but by landmarks. This offers no problem when driving between major cities or in familar territory, but when you like to take short cuts as I do, and North, South, East, and West are not marked, it makes for quite a challenge.
We are staying at the home of my sister-in-law, in the ultra-modern and rigidly-planned New Airport Town Square, which, despite all my anarcho-traditionalist leanings, is one of my favorite places in Korea. It's clean and efficient.
These are trying times for the Snyders, yet full of countless blessings. My kids have been spending far too much time in our car, but once they were asleep, my wife joined me in the front seat. (Korean mothers sit in the back seat, which acts as an insurance policy that one parent should survive an accident.) It was the first time in a long while that I had a chance to talk at length with the beautiful woman to whom I am an unworthy husband.
If things go as planned, we will be spending the month of August in St. Loius, Missouri, which I've heard is quite a Catholic city. After that, we might be separated for several months, with me returning to my wife's country and her staying with the kids in mine, getting care for our daughter that is not available here in Korea.
Your prayers have been felt and are appreciated.
Blogging might be light for a few days.
Redeemed by Our Savior, I work out my salvation with fear and trembling in Pohang, South Korea, where I live with my wife, daughter, and son and teach English at a science and technology university. Baptized a Methodist and raised a Missouri Synod Lutheran in Buffalo, NY, I spent six years as a guest of the Anglican Communion before being received by the Grace of God into the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church on the Feast of Saint Andrew, my patron, anno domini 2002.
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