Lotte World!!!

I’m home again after a very long day yesterday, that included the last sightseeing and the flight home.

Wednesday morning we checked out of the hotel. We drove past the 1988 Olympic Village, and I had a chance to see (at least in passing) the stadiums that were used for those games. We drove to the Lotte complex, a huge set of connected buildings, including a convention hotel, shopping mall, theater, and indoor/outdoor amusement park. I met two of my Wind Symphony students, Julie Kyung and Jong-Seo Youn, at the park and we had a great time there for the day.

Lotte World’s indoor section is like a huge arena with several floors with rides, games, restaurants, and an icerink. A bridge over the street connects the indoor section with an island in an adjacent lake, with more outdoor rides built around a central castle, which looked suspiciously like Cinderella’s castle at Magic Kingdom/Disneyworld. In fact, a lot of Lotte World reflected the Disney influcence: shows, mascot (a raccoon — lots of children wear raccoon ears in the park; the connection is obvious), uniforms, “Cast Only” signs on doors, even the monorail that connects the indoor and outdoor sections of the park looks like Disney.

After the morning and afternoon at Lotte World, we said goodbyes to half the group, who were staying on with friends and relatives in Seoul, and made our way to Incheon Airport for the 14 hour ride home. I reset my watch for Eastern Daylight time before boarding and that helped a great deal with the time change on the way back.

This trip has had a major impact on my life. It wasn’t just a sightseeing trip. It wasn’t even simply a cultural exchange. In many ways, it was a diplomacy trip, to bring America and Korea closer together by making connections on a very personal level. It was very exciting and emotional for me, especially in Buson at the orphanage where I rehearsed and performed with their orchestra. I saw beautiful mountains, waterfalls, and coastlines. It was exciting for all of us to see the adoptees who traveled with us as they explored the country of their heritage. Three adoptees had life-changing experiences: one saw her mother for the first time in many, many years, and two met their birth mothers for the first time. We were all moved by these events.

As I unpack and settle back in, I’ll download photos and add them to the previous postings.

My thanks go to Hyae Kyung Jo for leading this trip, to Julia Park for inviting me, and to Grace Park and Karen Mok for making me feel so welcome all along the way.