Saying Goodbye to Seoul

Sunday we went to the Ancient Village which is about an hour south of Seoul. It reminds me of New Salem, Lincoln's hometown. I thank my fine friend Sang Shin for recommending it to me. I will have to come back to see it again. It truly is a beautiful place, and we got a sense of the real history and daily life of the Korea of the past. It is worth remembering that Korea was not a wealthy country fifty years ago, and it has really been transformed in that time. The value of hard work is definitely here.

Along the way, we saw high rises everywhere but lots of lush green forests. There are many, many greenhouses here, and judging from the wonderful diet here, I can imagine that a lot of them are for raising vegetables.

Yesterday we saw Phillip off. We will miss him, and I particularly will miss the way he and Jocelyn loved to tease one another. Last night after Phillip left we watched the absolutely wonderful movie Sassy Girl. If you ever have the chance to see it, you will see someone who is the Korean version of Jocelyn!

Today I am leaving for Delhi. Tom and Jocelyn have been absolutely wonderful hosts here, and I cannot thank them enough. I have met some great people here, and I know I will remember them all--Cindy, Sean, Candy, John, Tom's brother in law, and many others. I went on my last run in the Children's Grand Park. The old man who must be close to 90 waved to me again today. The women who for the last week has been giving me a drink of green tea gave me an entire bottle of it. I did not see the young man who pushes himself around on a wheel chair. But I am sure he will be there, and I was motivated to run faster when I saw him wheel himself up the steep hills. There is a stretch of the run which is under a canopy of trees which reminded me of a road I once ran down in Luzon lined by flowers. It is a great place. You should all come to see this.