Weekend of Music, Sports, Fun . . .

[성김 대사]

Well, I certainly must say that last weekend was an exciting one.  For my family and me, it was filled with sports and culture.  On the sporting side, what could have been more exciting than watching the Olympics?  It doesn’t get much better than Michael Phelps breaking the record for most Olympic medals and Kim Jae-bum completing the judo grand slam.

But the Olympics were just a side note to a fun weekend.  My family and I took off to the beautiful mountains of Gangwon for the Great Mountains Music Festival held at Alpensia Resort.  The resort was lovely, and thankfully both the temperature and humidity were much lower than in Seoul. 

With my younger daughter Erica

We saw a couple of fantastic classical concerts featuring many talented artists from different countries – from Ukrainian dancers to Latin American cellists.  But one of the things I enjoyed most was seeing some of Korea’s new talents and, of course, the legendary sisters Chung Myung-wha and Chung Kyung-wha.

This is one of the best things about living in Korea. There are so many opportunities to enjoy classical music and other cultural events.  I have to admit, it was also great to get away for a couple of days from my busy life in Seoul. 

We had a magnificent time, but it wasn’t all leisure.  I did have to do some work there as well.  On Saturday night, the Foreign Ministry sponsored an evening of events for the diplomatic corps.  It was a good opportunity to do a little business in a more relaxed atmosphere with senior Foreign Ministry officials and fellow ambassadors.

Now, I don’t want you to think the U.S. Ambassador to Korea spent his entire weekend at cultural events.  We had a chance to have a lot of simple family fun, including bike riding and driving go-carts.  After seven months of 기러기life, it is really great to have the family with me.  

What a beautiful day to ride bikes and drive go-carts!

And like just about everyone else, whenever we had a free moment, we watched the Olympics!  It was especially fun to catch some Olympic action there because, as you know, the Winter Games are coming to Gangwon in 2018.  In fact, I heard that Alpensia would be one of the key sporting complexes for the Olympics.  After my wonderful weekend there, I am even more excited about the 2018 PyeongChang Games.