YSA Conference in Korea

This past weekend was so, so wonderful! I attended an LDS Young Single Adult conference. It was the best weekend I've had over these past two months of living in Korea. At first I was nervous, not knowing what to expect. But it was just what I needed. For any of my friends unfamiliar with the LDS church, this was like a retreat for men and women ages 18-30. We have religious seminars, eat food, and goof around usually.

I think most of my pictures are in this post but I keep finding more on facebook so I have a photobucket album I keep adding pictures to. Click here to see the album!

On Friday morning, I traveled from Gwangju north towards Taean on a bus with other YSA members in my area. Friday was Korea's independence day so luckily I didn't have work--yay! A girl from my ward, Seungeun was so sweet to me the whole time! She translated for me, made sure I understood what was happening, and encouraged me to learn many Korean words and phrases.

One of the first things we did was take our bags to our rooms in the hostel we stayed at. When we opened our door, I freaked out for a minute because I walked in with my group of 7 other girls and just saw a small, hard floor. I was worried because I thought maybe I was supposed to bring bedding--there were no beds!! I relaxed when I saw one of the girls open a wardrobe full of blankets and pillows!
 
 

The next thing we did was an ice breaker activity! I was of course nervous since I don't know much Korean. Everyone was so patient with me though AND sooo many people spoke English very well. Many of them know English well from serving a mission or attending school in the States. It was fantastic!

The theme for Friday was dating and marriage. We were paired into couples and pretending to be engaged, planning and budgeting a mock wedding, listening to seminars about successful marriage, etc. We played the game where your partner has to identify you by only seeing one part of you (foot, hand, etc). Some people pointed out that my partner and I had an advantage because I'm white. True as that is, he didn't guess my hand correctly! I'm white but some Korean girls are paler than me...

The food I ate was especially delicious. I spent three days eating nothing but Korean food and I loved it. Every meal was rice, an assortment of side dishes, and soup. Yes, even breakfast. The first breakfast was difficult and I really wanted to eat french toast instead of rice. But now that I'm home, I miss it already!

Also, both nights we had a "night snack." At YSA conferences in the States we do this too but usually it's like fruit snacks and goldfish crackers or something. Well, in Korea they ordered fried chicken at midnight hahaha. The second night we had pizza. Koreans don't merely "snack," people.

Anyway, on Friday night I got the worst night's sleep ever! Maybe it was the fact that we didn't get to bed until 2:30...or because I had just pigged out on fried chicken...or because I was in a strange new place...more than likely it was simply the rock hard floor! All I had was a comforter-like blanket to sleep on and a tiny pillow and another blanket to cover me. It was awful haha.

The theme for Saturday was LDS Temples. We had some great seminars. Seungeun translated for me! This was the day we played on the beach and IN THE OCEAN. I'd never really played in the ocean before and I was actually really nervous right before going in--the ocean is kind of scary! We played some fun games in the water.

After getting cleaned up, we had a DANCE!! LDS conferences always have a dance. Always. But here's the thing: Korean LDS dances are sooo different from dances in the States. Dances in the States almost have a "club" feel, right? The lights are down, pop music is blaring, and everyone free-styles. Oh, and most of the YSA dances I went to, we wore casual clothes.

Welllll in Korea we were taught moves for dances. Yeah, we did the cha cha and waltzed and dressed nicely. No free-style dancing. And I could actually see the faces of the guys I was dancing with and hear them--that doesn't happen at dances in America! As much as I enjoy dances in Colorado, it was a nice change.

On Sunday we had testimony sacrament meeting before heading home. And of course we took plenty of group pictures.

On the way home we went to a rest stop for a snack. It was strange to see everyone buying stuff on a Sunday... Seungeun and I got a treat that I can't remember the name of. They are little hot dogs and rice cakes called tteok. The sauce on them was super tasty. We also got walnut cookies. They don't have walnut in them but they look like walnuts and are filled with red bean. I didn't get a picture of the actual cookie pastry but I have a video showing how the vendor's machine made them. You can see it pop out a couple at the very end of the video.

When I got home it was nice to lay down at take everything in. I wish I could fully express to you all how incredible this weekend was for me. I made many new LDS friends, which means a lot to me. I felt so spiritually uplifted. I'm not positive whether I will stay in Korea longer than a year but I have made a note in my heart to look back and remember this weekend when I make that decision months from now.

Love you all. As always, thanks for reading!

Music I listened to while writing this post: Today's Alternative Radio Pandora station