d-Wizz Hankuk Travel Diary [2005]
Day 3 (2005-07-29) / Day 4 (2005-07-30) / Day 5 (2005-07-31) 
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Day 4: 2005-07-30 (Saturday)
I woke up and had a shower with no hot water. Breakfast was simply two slices of toast with strawberry jam and a 200mL carton of strawberry flavoured milk. Very un-Korean and quite strange indeed.
After breakfast, I immediately prepared to travel to Balsan, where I would again meet Jin-Oh, this time for a church meeting. The journey involved a train on line 4 from Hansung Uni (419) to Dong-daemun (422), transferring there to line 5 (536) for a substantial trip to Balsan (515). Jin-Oh met me at the station and ushered me into a taxi which took us about 1km to the venue. The place was buzzing – something large was going on here. Jin-Oh showed me to a seat inside and then said he had to go to a meeting, and would be back in about ten minutes. The worship leader had begun singing “Blessed Assurance” in Korean; this was followed by a few other familiar Korean songs (I am not sure of the titles) and “At Calvary”, another well-known English hymn. The sermon was from 1 Kings 19, the story of Elijah’s post-Mt. Carmel depression. A translator repeated the Korean message in English. The sermon’s five points were about the complete Gospel, complete prayer, complete evangelism, complete devotion and complete worship.
At the conclusion of the service, we went outside and shared a Korean sushi and soft drink. Then I was driven back to Balsan station to do my own thing.
Hmmm... what was I to do? I really wanted to go back to Lauren’s house and collect some of my luggage, but he wasn’t home so I was unable to do that. 
I decided to call James again, and we met at 종로삼(3)가 (Jongno-sam-ga) (“Jongno-3”, for short) station.
He took me through Insadong market and we also had a look at a few music shops there. James was able to play an electronic drum kit for the first time while we were there. Later, we went to a place where you can practise your baseball technique. A pitching machine spits balls in your direction, and all you gotta do is hit them. James got about 80%, but I missed every time! James even let me have a second turn. I guess I was never meant to be a baseball player.
After proving my total incompetence as a baseball hitter, we began walking to the bus to go to James’ church. This was neither a quick nor easy journey; it involved quite a lot of walking and a lengthy bus trip, which ended in an obscure dead-end street. James motioned towards an old brick building and indicated that was his church. Inside, we climbed three flights of stairs (Korean buildings have many stairs and few elevators) to what I guess was the “sanctuary”.
James wanted me to play the drum kit for the church service, so as the other musicians arrived for practise, he introduced me to them. There was a keyboard player, guitarist and bass. The songs were all fairly easy to follow, despite the Korean lyrics. I asked for a copy of the sheet music so I could follow, but the copy was very faint, so it was virtually useless. Two songs were familiar to me; Dennis Jernigan’s “You Are My All In All”, and the Hillsong “One Way” - the latter being my first opportunity to actually play this song, having only sung it a few times.
The other musicians gave me great visual cues to assist my playing and suggested other aspects of the drumming dynamics which would be suitable during the service. This was a great help because I re ally did not know what I was doing. I played simply and kept my eye on the rest of the band. It seemed to work OK. Afterwards, everyone was giving me accolades, so I must have done a few things right, even if I did feel like an idiot.
After the service, James was involved in another church practice, so I waited for him, and then we walked with a group of people from the church a rather long way to a restaurant for dinner. It was getting late by this stage, about 2120hrs. I can’t remember what the meal was called, but again it was very nice, and very cheap. The quality and value of Korean food is one of its features.
We took two trains and a bus back to James’ place and I fell asleep almost immediately from exhaustion.
Day 3 (2005-07-29) / Day 4 (2005-07-30) / Day 5 (2005-07-31)
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