Daddy Daughter Korea

(Rob).  As some of you may know, I recently took Maddie with me for a 10 day trip to Seoul, Korea.  The original purpose of the trip is an exchange that UGA has been doing for several years with the Seoul Metropolitan Government. In the past,  one of my colleagues has led a group of our graduate students there for course credit and to learn from Seoul's public managers.  This year, that colleague's daughter--who had gone with her mom on previous Seoul trips--graduated from high school and the graduation events conflicted with them going to Seoul again.  After some VERY minimal arm twisting I agreed to lead the 2012 group.

From Korea: Maddie and Rob

I need to interject here by saying that Flori and I typically are in favor of the hard knocks life for kids. Spare the rod and risk spoiling the child kind of thing. :)  However, I had the strong feeling that I didn't have too many opportunities like this left with Maddie before high school, college, and boys totally eclipse any cool factor that I may currently enjoy.   I'm so glad I followed that premonition.  We had a marvelous time -- even after almost 40 flight hours and being together all day, every day.  Maddie is a terrific young woman and a hardy traveler.  She is also an insatiable shopper, and seems to have inherited my love for eye-catching street food.

From Korea: Maddie and Rob

Like her dad and grandpa, Maddie is now hooked on Korea.  She can't wait to go back and I'm hoping that some day I might be able to teach a semester or two in Seoul.  Here are some highlights:

• a baseball game (the games are packed, the fans are dedicated and know cheers and chants to last the whole game, they even have cheerleaders) 
• great Korean food; our hotel even served chocolate cake for breakfast -- didn't get old until the 6th day -- maybe because it went so nicely with bacon
• seeing several of Korea's national treasures (no. 1-3, 60-61, 65, 79-80, 93, 191, 223)
• a trip to the DMZ, including infiltration tunnel #3
• shopping hundreds of fabric stalls to find something for mom -- the fabric market is like Joann's on steroids then cloned 3,500 times
• church in Seoul where we had the unexpected chance to visit with Pres. Elaine Dalton and Elder Ringwood (the latter from Ruth Ann and Neil's ward)

We also spent a few days with my friend, Dr. Tobin Im, and his lovely family. He is professor at Seoul National University and graciously invited me to give a talk at his school. We celebrated Buddha's birthday with their family and then Tobin's wife introduced Maddie to marathon shopping, Korean style.

I'll let the photos speak for themselves. I love you Maddie.  Thanks for the fun trip.  I love you Flori, thanks for letting me make up at least part of the time away with yards of fabric bribes from Seoul.