Venturing out on my own

I did it! Using my handy dandy Seoul subway app, I figured out how to get to the ice rink by myself. Well, not completely by myself. Koreans are very friendly. While I stood puzzling about which way to go, someone asked me in English what I was looking for. When I thought I had the right platform, I confirmed with the people standing around. Once I was on the right platform for the opposite direction to where I wanted to go. I had to go back up the stairs and down a different stair to get to the right place, but I found it. I had to make one line change. I knew how many stops, and there was an electronic sign on the train that said in English and Korean which stop was next, so it wasn't hard.

When I got there, of course, I went out the wrong exit and ended up walking all the way around the building to find the rink. In the end I showed someone the skates in my bag and asked where the rink was.

The rink is in the basement level of an indoor amusement park called Lotte World. (Lotte is a major company I have often seen as a sponsor on the warm-up jackets of Asian skaters.) So overhead are two levels of rides and show stages. Last visit to Korea we went there with Erika and Simeon, and I looked down on the rink.

It wasn't my best skate. The ice was soft. The temperatures were higher than any rink I have ever skated in. I was sweating like crazy. Next time I will not wear double layers. They also required gloves. I have no idea why. But I had neglected to stick in my gloves, so they loaned me some.

More than the softness of the ice is the awkwardness and clumsiness I always feel on strange ice. Evidently Koreans are big on speed skating. The rink was covered with little cones to direct toe pushers around the outside and speed skaters around an inner ring, leaving the center for figure skaters--not enough space for my normal warm up of moves-in-the-field or cool-down of dances, making it harder to get used to the ice. I did get in some good outside mohawk practice although even that felt weird without hockey circles to practice on. (No lines anywhere except color variations that I expect were related to the refridgeration system.)

But I have skated in Korea! I'm wondering where Kim Yu Na practices. I'm sure it's not somewhere with speed skaters going around the outside.

Easter in Korea

He is risen!

Erika is heavily involved in music, especially this weekend, and we have had a very busy day. We were at the Dragon Hill hotel at 6 AM to prepare for the sunrise service.

Our pre-dawn brass prelude

One member of her singing group got called into work this morning, so they had to scramble. They were great. I intended to video, but I must have bumped something almost immediately and turned it off. I held the camera carefully the entire song (which, believe me, isn't easy to do when they are singing "O Happy Day!") and had exactly 1 second of recording.

Erika's praise team leads the traditional Easter hymns

After the service we had just enough time to grab a plate from the fellowship buffet before Erika had to head to the chapel to rehearse for the ROCK service. (ROCK stands for Relying on Christ in Korea, which I think is pretty cool for the contemporary service.

Leftover sushi for lunch. (Our household eats pizza every Saturday night; Erika's household eats sushi. Who is more sophisticated?)

At two we headed to the high school for a security check before we could get into the chapel for the afternoon service. The reason for the extra security was our guest--Vice President Mike Pence, his wife Karen and two daughters. I have never had the experience of virtually the entire audience for a concert sitting through the entire dress rehearsal. The church was full by the time we finished going through the congregational songs, choir anthem and final Halelujah Chorus, and then we went through them all again with the high school orchestra supplemented with army brass. After nearly an hour and a half of practice, they announced that the VP had arrived and we would begin the service a half hour before the scheduled time. I presume the reason was that everyone was already there, so why wait? I don't know how many were turned away, but if you came on time for the service--or even an hour and a half early--you didn't get in.

It was pretty cool to get to sing for the VP, but what I enjoyed most was singing goose-bump-inducing praise music with organ, drums and orchestra full volume. The Pence's sang along on the congregational songs. "They are real Christians," the choir director had told us, and I guess, they requested the opportunity to worship with us.

There was also a dinner afterwards. Sort of a combination of Korean and American food. There were enough of us that we ate in several rooms, but the Pence's made the rounds and shook a lot of hands. Not ours. We weren't supposed to get out of our seats, and they didn't quite make our corner. Sigh. We weren't allowed to take pictures during the worship service, but I did get a shot while he said a few words to our room in thanks for the service of the military families.

Here is an article about the visit. It even includes a tweet from the VP account with a picture of the choir. Our heads are approximately 0.5 mm high, so I don't expect you to pick out Erika or me.

Preparing for Easter

Tomorrow is Easter. Erika normally leads worship for the ROCK service and sings in the choir for the Cornerstone service. The alto section is very weak. Katie joined her last month, and I will tomorrow. I’m not the only one joining at the last minute. There was a two-hour rehearsal this morning. Simeon sat with the iPad and earphones, amusing himself with movies and games and occasionally forgetting where he was and adding his own sound affects.

Tomorrow will begin with a sunrise service in the garden of the hotel. Erika is singing in a small group for that. Then the ROCK service (with rehearsal for Erika before). Then a break because the Cornerstone service has been moved to the afternoon, but we have another rehearsal at 3. That will be a VERY interesting service, but more about that after it happens.

We came home from rehearsal and grabbed lunch. Then Dan took off with Simeon for the aquarium. It has turned into a lovely day despite the pollution, so I preferred to be outside. Erika had work to do on tomorrow’s music and wanted the house to herself, so I took off for the National Museum Park. It is only a few hundred yards from Erika’s house, but there is not gate in that direction, so it was about a 1.25 mile walk in each direction. Good exercise. I took my thermal mug of tea and my phone with my camera and e-book on it and had a great time. The more sunshine, the easier it is for the body to adjust time.

This is cheery blossom season, and I kept thinking how my mom would have loved it. One of the things I really enjoyed seeing was all the Korean families picnicking. Some sat at picnic tables, but many sat on blankets on the grass with shared trays of tidbits in the middle, talking and reaching with chopsticks to pick up tasty bites.

Blossoms rained down like snow.
The blue and yellow in the background are tents families have set up for shade for children's naps.

This tree just outside Erika and Dan's apartment is beautiful.
Their place is upstairs on the left.

Back to Korea

Back to Korea—for the fourth time! I flew alone Wednesday to Thursday this week. Steve will join me later. We had a bit of mechanical delay, but otherwise no problems. I even slept several hours. The delay meant I didn’t arrive until after Erika’s Maundy Thursday service was over, and it was easier for her to meet me. But she didn’t come to the airport. This time I took the Airport Limosine Bus to Ichon Station across from the visitor gate. She met me there. Piece of cake.

Erika had planned to take me to look at cherry blossoms on Friday, but it was raining. Not a nice day for parks, but fine for shopping. After taking care of my documentation for the base, we took the subway to Nagwon Music Market--four floors of nothing but musical instruments, plus more music shops in the surrounding streets. 

Simeon has repeatedly expressed a desire to learn to play guitar. Of course, he sees his mom playing and singing in church several times a week. (He thinks "rehearsal" means "church.") Erika bought her guitar at a Martin shop just outside the main market and has been very happy with it. We were shopping for a small size guitar for Simeon. Amazing how much difference a few hundred dollars make. Sigh. They were significantly more expensive than we had expected. She has found cheaper on-line, but all the reviews say they are junk. We’ll see. As soon as Simeon was handed a guitar to try, he started to sing, “We love you, Lord!” The sales guy got a kick out of him. We came home to think about it some more.

NYC Day 5: Up and at 'em Today

Another late night followed by the earliest morning yet. Met downstairs at 6:15 to walk to the Today Show. I gave Mom ample opportunity to back out of this, but she doesn't want to miss out on a thing! (Drat! I was hoping to sleep in, but if she doesn't want to miss it at her age, I'm not about to!)

It was a twelve-minute walk according to Kirsten's GPS to the courtyard outside the NBC studios across from Rockefeller Center. We didn't go the most direct route (not sure if that was the fault of the GPS or not) and ended up coming back a couple blocks and then going around the building to be on the correct side for the line. We had registered ahead of time on-line, and Kirsten went ahead and made arrangements for wheelchair access.

There was a food truck out front giving away free coffee, tea, chocolate and warm crumb cake with a suggested donation for cancer. Nan clearly has a thing about her morning coffee. She had commented on every Starbucks on our way and considered darting out of line to go in the Starbucks across the street, so she was very happy for the free coffee without risking losing her place in line.

Bob chats with the page who took us around the security line.

In the end, we didn't need the line. A page showed us directly to the wheelchair area. It meant Mom could be right at the front without having to look over heads (or at butts, which are more at eye-level in a crowd). The problem is that it was way to one end, so when they panned the crowd, they rarely came as far as us. I was disappointed for the 16-year-old birthday girl next ot us whose little brother has muscular dystrophy. They had a sign to hold up about finding a cure. But once after a break when the techs had been chatting with us, they started at our end. So their sign hit the screen, and Mom has been on TV twice in four days! A real celeb!

I look like I need some of that coffee Nan was after.

We stood out in the cold for an hour and a half. I was very glad that I had worn my boots instead of the tennis shoes I wore on Friday to the parade. (My toes still hurt from the chilbains I got that day.) The anchors came out for a 30-second intro at 8, and we left after that. Everyone was cold. Not something I would make a high priority next time, but it was an experience and hey! Mom was on TV!

A friend in St. Louis texted Kirsten this screen shot.

The others were taking off this afternoon. Before they went, Bob wanted Mom to personally present Kirsten with her Christmas present. Of course, Kirsten knew exactly what it was--a copy of Mom's family memoir, but we staged a handover for the camera.



We lunched at Lombardi's in Greenwich Village. The website says it was founded in 1905 because that is as far back as they have documentation. Word of mouth history says 1897, but restaurants weren't licensed until 1905. After the building of the subway (whose vibrations damaged the original oven), the location moved a couple blocks up the street to a former bakery with an oven that was the twin of the original. Great pizza; cool atmosphere. They had a temporary ramp they could put down in a secondary entrance to let Mom easily into the quaint restaurant in her wheelchair.

As we sat around the table, Kirsten suggested that we share "superlatives": the best outing (other than our purpose of coming to the Carnegie Hall concert), best meal, and best transportation experience. Since I know I will not remember everyone's, I'll share mine and ask family members to add theirs in the comments. Although I loved the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, I had been there before, and our 9/11 experience was totally unique, so that is my best outing. My best meal was unquestionably last night's veal Parmesean, and my best transportation experience would be walking back to the hotel at night through Times Square.

Jack and Kirsten were off to see some friends, so the six of us remaining tried to get an Uber that could carry all. The car that came could carry six, but not six plus a wheelchair. At least he wasn't willing for Bob to try to fit it in for fear of scratching his car. In the end, we used two cars again. Our driver's name was Sekou. Since I used to live on Avenida Amad Sekou Torre in Maputo, I asked where he was from. Guinea. And he was named after the independence fighter who became the Communist dictator that my street was named after. Almost all our drivers have been immigrants and they have been fascinating to talk to. Very enthusiastic about America.

Mom and I decided that the one thing missing from our NYC experience was shopping on Fifth Avenue! So when the others left for the airport, we went window shopping. What is the most famous store on Fifth Avenue? Saks! So that's where we headed. We looked at evening wear on the 9th floor (way too fussy), designer wear on the 3rd floor (not the least tempting), and hats on the first floor (all too large for Mom's tiny head), so we spent zero money on our outing.

Sak's is right next to St. Patrick's Cathedral and Friday while we watched the parade from across the street, we all wondered what it looked like inside.

And look what is over those doors we were looking at!

We walked around the block so we could say we were on Madison Avenue just because it was famous.

On the way home I had to take a picture of the ice rink at Rockefeller Center even though I didn't bring my skates. It was way smaller than I had pictured it--regular NFL size. I thought of my niece Kelsey whose husband proposed to her there with friends and family looking on from the rail holding signs saying, "Say yes!"

The one thing I didn't do in New York was meet with any big-time publishers. Sigh. Next time.



After all our fabulous meals, Mom and I did the NYC food truck experience for supper. She had a hot dog, and I had a kebab from the truck on the corner near the hotel. We carried them back to Times Square to eat sitting on a bench.

Tonight we will not be staying up until midnight. Tomorrow we are off home. I think we both need a rest!

NYC Day 4: Carnegie Debute

Our reason for gathering in New York this weekend was Bob's Carnegie debut.

His wonderful church choir sang tonight with a mass chorus under the direction of Andre Taylor. They sang Taylor's compositions, which the conductor said was a lot of fun since usually he conducted the music of dead people. The whole weekend was like a choral workshop for them with rehearsals while we did our glavanting around the city. Bob joined us today for 9/11, but while we relaxed, showered and ate dinner, he was at a final dress rehearsal with the orchestra.

Don't bother to look for Bob. He's behind the cello on the right.

The concert included a high school choir from Florida and a mass children's choir. I had kind of dreaded them wondering what kind of quality we would get, but both were excellent. Bob's adult mass choir, of course, had a much more mature sound, and they were the only ones with the orchestra. During the intermission I could see the kids filing into the balcony, so I kept thinking how neat it was for young singers to get to hear the adult choir, although the adult choir also included some high schoolers. The music was very interesting with a gospel flair. We laughed that one of the best was "Keep Your Lamps" accompanied only by drums--which they ran out of time to rehearse in the afternoon so they had NEVER been over it with the musician.

The hall was packed with families like us who had come to hear their friend/relative sing in Carnegie Hall.

I had my Carnegie Hall singing debut as well. Today was Erika's birthday. I called her at intermission and sang Happy Birthday for her answering machine even though it was already Monday morning in Seoul. But I now HAVE sung in Carnegie Hall.

Walking home after another exciting night out

NYC Day 4: Remembering 9/11

It was nearly midnight when we got to bed last night, but we were up by 7 to head to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. We have not been impressed with NY’s structures to care for people in wheelchairs. The people are great, but structures are lacking. Not only has clearing curb ramps of snow been low priority, but we have encountered many elevators out of order or inaccessible. This morning we went to the subway station that had an elevator only to find that the entry on our side of the street did not. Elevator was only on the other side of the street—with a half marathon between us and there.

The police couldn’t let us across. Meanwhile another guy in a motorized wheelchair arrived with the same need. He was a pastor trying to get to his church to preach. The police said we might be able to cross at Broadway, a block up, so we all (including the pastor) headed that way. There the police brought us back to where we originally were and eased Mom with Bob and the pastor across through “traffic” like police cars might divide the stream of traffic around an accident on the freeway. Jack got this video.

We met them below in the subway station, no problem. But when we emerged at our destination at the World Trade Center the elevator was broken. A sign said we should re-board and get off a couple exits back. Not very practical. In fact, headed for the museum was mostly ramp. Then we got to about 20 steps down. Mom held the rail and my arm and eased herself down while Ben and Bob carried the wheelchair down. After that, no problem except that we took a taxi back rather than try to get her up those stairs.

The World Trade Center Museum is awesome and emotionally exhausting. Of course, every visitor old enough to remember is reliving their experience of that day. The atmosphere is quiet and subdued except the audios of current news accounts, phone messages left by passengers on flight 93, 91 calls, recorded memories, etc. If you are only planning to visit the outdoor memorial, you don’t need as much time, but the museum requires a minimum of the full day. You could spent several and not see everything.

Our day included meeting a man who told us his story. I’m not sure his official position at the museum, but he was the one who showed Mom (with Bob and me) to the elevator while the rest took the stairs. He told us he was there that day. That his daughter worked on one of the floors that took the direct hit. But he came down early and talked her and another relative who worked in the tower into going to breakfast with him.  They were on their way back when the first plane hit. He was a former marine who served multiple stints in Africa fighting Idi Amin. He said he’s not proud of it, but his first instinct was to get out of there. They were gone before the towers came down. Now he is a retired systems analyst who cares for family members of the 9/11 victims when they visit. He met one young man who was 19. He had never met his father. Our new friend took the young man to the family room where he bawled for half an hour. Our friend was wandering spiritually before 9/11, but the experience brought him unequivocally back to faith.

He took us all into the auditorium wheelchair entrance where we sat through both movies (one events of the day, the other political response with interviews of Bush, Blair and the Pakistani president). When we came out, he said no one was in the family room and offered to let us see it. That was a very intimate look at drawings by children (at this point many grandchildren learning family history), pictures, personal messages plastering all the walls. Before he left us, I asked to pray for him. I feel like God saved his life for a purpose and has placed him where he is to minister to people.

Base of pillars of the South Tower

The rebuilt World Trade Center seen through two irders of the old in the stair well at the entrance.

A ladder truck crush in the collapse. Miraculously, at least some of the firemen from this truck survived.

The museum is a very personal experience, and we didn’t try to stay together the whole time. There are huge pieces of twisted metal, a flag, a set of stair down which many of the survivors escaped, the foundations of pillars, huge photos, video clips, posters of the missing from the days immediately after, memorial art displays, and so much more. The wall of the Foundation Hall is the slurry wall that kept the Hudson River out of the foundations from the time of the construction of the buildings.

The tree on the left is called theSurvivor Tree. It was found buried in five feet of ash
a month after the collapse, yet it survived and thrives.

This experience is not for every American child like the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island are. It's too intense. It requires a certain level of maturity and emotional stamina. But it is definitely a powerful piece of our nation's history.

When I showered back at the hotel to get ready for tonight’s concert, I felt like I was washing off the layers of dust from the collapse.