What to do if you have a day in Korea?

After almost four weeks in china we said goodbye to students and china yesterday. We had a few options for getting to Indonesia. One entailed a night in Seoul, Korea and,naturally, that's exactly what we decided to do. In fact in 2007 we started our Asian adventures here. Julia was just 7 and Hana was 10. Becky was with us since Jeff had to work. We thought about walking around the noble hood where we lived for a month but then decided we would rather spend our short day here in a Korean spa. We flew in late in the evening. The shuttle from our hotel picked us up in 10 minutes. After signing my name clerk said goodnight. It couldn't have been any easier! By 11 am we were at dragon hill spa and resort. We relaxed in the salt room, laying down on rocks, baked in one of the many hot ovens---complete with our spa outfit--got a brief massage and then Jeff and I split ways to our segregated bathing areas. I enjoyed two different kinds of dry sauna and then mixed it up with 6 or so hot tubs and cold spring water rinses. The final act for me was a body scrubbing and herbal hair treatment!!! The girls? They tried sweating it out in a couple different family rooms but opted for a korean lunch and karaoke. They had a blast. Jeff and I met up again,feeling cleaner and more relaxed than we have felt in months...years?... Seoul is truly an amazing place!!

Our final days

The students did a lot of touring while we were in Beijing. I'm sure that they have a lot of interesting pictures. Here are some final pics. I'm so grateful for this experience. I so enjoyed getting to know these amazing young people! They are all so unique and fun!

The fast train to bejing

Ok,the overnight train from xian to pingyao was fun but a bit tiring. After a short day in pingyao-- the site of the best preserved wall in china -- we were on a bullet train to Bejing. It was amazing! Obviously, there was time for fun!