visiting the Pattons

A few weeks ago Andy and Lindsey Patton came to visit us. This past weekend was our turn to go and visit them. We live in quite different areas. Our apartment is in Suwon, which is on the outskirts of Seoul. We live in an apartment where if you sleep with the windows open, like we did last night, it is loud; cars are constantly driving, honking, and wrecking (seriously) right outside our home. Life is fast paced here between work and city life. It just always seems like everyone is on the go. And aestically, what you see is concrete. There is concrete everywhere, which means wide open green spaces are few and far between. City life, however, does have some major advantages. A big advantage being, the food. Although I wouldn't call Korea a diverse place, in the Seoul area you can find more food options such as Indian food, Thai food, Mexican, Vietnamese, Western (aka Outback Steakhouse), some Italian, etc. Additionally, there are fun things to do around the city: going to cool restaurants (mentioned above), sight seeing, English bookstores, sporting events, decent coffee shops, etc.

Andy and Lindsey live in the opposite. They live on the east coast of Korea in a place called, Gangneung. They live in a relatively small town (about 200,000 people) and they are surrounded by nature. They have the beach to one side, a lake near by, and mountains on the other side. It is also quiet where they live. Tom and I were astonished when we slept at their place with the windows open because it was incredibly quiet. We were struck by the stillness. However, because Gangneung is a less populated area there are less foreigners, which means we can get starred at more and there are less foreign food options. It seemed like the food choices were Korean, Korean, or McDonalds (nothing against Korean food, there just isn't as much diversity).

I can't really say I liked one of the places more than the other. Both Suwon and Gangneung have their advantages and disadvantages. I love the city life but I love nature. It was great to go to Gangneung and just be surrounded by nature. We went to the beach, did some hiking, read by a lake, woke up to the sun rising silently through the Patton's apartment...it was amazing. My soul needed the stillness.

It was also great to be with Andy and Lindsey. When we hang out with them there is this amazing mixture of being in Korea together but also being from the same place back home. So we can talk about how much we hate the fishy smell of Korea, while also talking about how the Artisan (local cofffee shop) is now the Underground Cafe. One night we were together we had an especially great night of chatting over a bottle of wine about things that only someone from Columbia, Missouri could understand. It was deeply refreshing and meaningful for my heart. (Tom actually snapped a picture of our conversation without us knowing.)


Now we're back in Suwon. We feel more at peace and refreshed in a way that only Gangneung could offer. It's time to get back to work.